Reddit removes accounts that leaked NHS documents to Corbyn, believed to be part of co-ordinated campaign Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly claimed Boris Johnson intends to ‘sell off’ the NHS to American pharmaceutical companies

Leaked NHS documents used by Jeremy Corbyn in Labour’s general election campaigning have been linked to a Russian disinformation operation on Reddit, the social media site has revealed.

Reddit announced it had banned 61 accounts linked to the release of the documents, after investigating suspect activity which bore similarities to Russian hacking operations.

The social network said it believed the documents were leaked as “part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia”.

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Mr Corbyn has repeatedly claimed Boris Johnson intends to “sell off” the NHS to American pharmaceutical companies.

Last week he presented the documents at a press conference, citing them as evidence of alleged “secret meetings” on the health service between US and British officials.

‘Pattern of coordination’

Reddit said there was a “pattern of coordination” between a Russian operation dubbed “Secondary Infektion” uncovered by Facebook earlier this year and the accounts it had banned.

“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,” a Reddit spokesperson said.

“As a result of this investigation, we are banning… 61 accounts under our policies against vote manipulation and misuse of the platform. ”

Reddit said the leaked files had first been posted in October and then reposted by a second account.

Pockets of accounts had worked together to “upvote” the posts using vote manipulation to make them more visible to users of the platform, it added.

These accounts had posted in different regional subreddits and in several different languages.

“As we have done with previous influence operations, we will also preserve these accounts for a time, so that researchers and the public can scrutinise them to see for themselves how these accounts operated,” Reddit said.

Labour refuses to cite source

Labour has repeatedly 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.

Mr Johnson said the NHS was not discussed with US President Donald Trump when the pair met for talks at the Nato summit this week as he rubbished Mr Corbyn’s claims as “complete nonsense”.

After touching down in London ahead of the summit, Mr Trump insisted America wants “nothing to do with” the NHS, even if it was “handed to us on a silver platter”.

Mr Johnson later claimed it was “absurd” that others such as Mr Corbyn were “so viscerally hostile to the United States“, adding: “The President of the United States has been supportive of this country when the chips were down.

Additional reporting from the Press Association