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Reddit has banned 61 users they say were linked to a Russian project to disrupt western elections.

The accounts include two which published unredacted US Trade deal documents on the website, which were later revealed in a press conference by Jeremy Corbyn .

Labour said the documents were evidence of Tory plans to allow US healthcare and pharmaceutical firms to buy into the NHS.

There’s no suggestion that the documents were doctored or fake, nor that Labour obtained the documents from the Reddit posts.

Nor is there any suggestion that Labour were aware the documents were being used by Russia as part of a disruption attempt.

The documents had been posted online some months previously, and had already been reported in the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson continues to refuse to publish a Parliamentary report on Russian influence campaigns, repeatedly insisting there is no evidence of Russian interference in UK politics.

“There is no evidence for that,” he said in November.

“And I think we have got to be very careful before we simply cast aspersions of everybody who comes from a certain country just because of their nationality.”

(Image: ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX)

In a post published last night, Reddit’s security team said they believed the leaked documents were “part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia.”

They linked the accounts to a project dubbed “Secondary Infektion” by the Atlantic Council - which had previously been identified by Facebook on their platform.

The project is said to be a follow up to the “Infektion” project operated by the KGB in the 1980s which sought to spread he false claim that HIV/AIDS had been the result of US government experiments.

Reddit’s security team said: “Suspect accounts on Reddit were recently reported to us, along with indicators from law enforcement, and we were able to confirm that they did indeed show a pattern of coordination.

“We were then able to use these accounts to identify additional suspect accounts that were part of the campaign on Reddit.

“This group provides us with important attribution for the recent posting of the leaked UK documents, as well as insights into how adversaries are adapting their tactics.”

As well as two accounts which posted the NHS trade documents, other accounts posted claims about North Korean nuclear operations and about Ukraine being on the brink of nuclear disaster.

Another account posted claims about Donald Trump having fallen out with British intelligence services.

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan said it was "extremely serious" that the leaked documents could be linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Morgan said: "I understand from what was being put on that website, those who seem to know about these things say that it seems to have all the hallmarks of some form of interference.

"And if that is the case, that obviously is extremely serious. And actually as Culture Secretary, obviously one of the things that we are looking for and monitoring is any interference in our elections."

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald renewed calls for the Government to allow a report detailing Russian interference in UK elections to be published.

He said: "If we want to get to the bottom of the extent to which the Russian state interferes in elections, can we please publish the Intelligence and Security Committee report?

"Let's get that out there. That should have been published ages ago."

Labour again refused to discuss the source for the documents.

"These documents reveal the plot against our NHS. And of course neither the UK nor the US government have denied their authenticity. Our releasing them to journalists was clearly in the public interest," a Labour spokesman said.