GCHQ traced the source of hacking attacks on 11 French TV stations to Russia

Spies at GCHQ have called an emergency summit with Britain’s political parties after warning them that they are at risk of Russian cyber-attacks disrupting the next general election.

Security sources say GCHQ now regards protecting the political system from foreign hackers as “priority work”. They fear that Kremlin-backed hackers could steal and leak internal emails or publish private databases of voters’ political views in an attempt to damage the standing of political parties with the public.

Spy chiefs stepped in after Russia was accused of helping Donald Trump win the US presidential election by hacking and publishing 20,000 emails from the rival Democratic Party.

Russia was also accused of infiltrating the German parliament’s computer network in 2015. The head of German intelligence recently accused Russia