A report on Russian interference in British politics allegedly being sat on by Downing Street includes evidence from Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk whose investigation into Donald Trump’s links with Moscow sparked a US political scandal.

Steele made submissions in writing to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), it is understood. A counter-intelligence specialist, Steele spent his career tracking Russian influence operations around the world and investigated Alexander Litvinenko’s 2006 murder.

The cross-party committee has been examining Russian interference in British politics for more than a year. It took evidence from both the UK’s spy agencies and experts on Kremlin intelligence and disinformation tactics such as Steele.

Members examined claims that the Kremlin tried to distort the result of the 2016 EU referendum, starting work after the former prime minister Theresa May had warned that Russia was sowing discord by “weaponising information” in the UK.

The report was due to be published on Monday. However on Thursday, Dominic Grieve, the MP who chairs the committee, accused Boris Johnson of sitting on the report – potentially preventing its publication before the general election.

Downing Street is normally given 10 working days to clear an ISC report, to ensure it contains no classified matters, according to ISC sources – although No 10 has disputed this, saying the process typically takes six weeks. Read more

Also Read: General election 2019: Donald Trump criticises Johnson’s Brexit deal