RUSHES: Intelligence and Security Committee Russia Report press conference

Intelligence and Security Committee Russia Report press conference; ENGLAND: London: INT Intelligence and Security Committee press conference SOT (19 of 21) Q: On those who have acted, wittingly or unwittingly, as de facto agents of Russian state Stewart Hosie MP (SNP: Intelligence and Security Committee Member) answering question SOT - Reference to de facto agents - enablers, accountants lawyers, estate agents - working for people close to Russian state - We make an explicit criticism that in the run up to the EU referendum there was a lot of pro Brexit reports on RT and Sputnik - What the report does not do, is criticise or name programme makers but it's about institutions who are able very quickly to get out Russian state version of events - It's not a criticism of any individual at all Q: On Russian interference in Western democracy being new normal Kevan Jones MP (Labour: Intelligence and Security Committee Member) answering question SOT - When you describe the new normal, it's part of their strategy - we need to make sure we have policy which protects our democratic process - As we're paper based voting system, it's harder to attack this from outside - If the government had done the investigation it could have looked for vulnerabilities and chosen to change them Paul Brand (Reporter) asking question SOT Q: On whether committee fundamentally believes government has been reluctant to look for Russian interference in Brexit referendum because government is won by the winning side Stewart Hosie MP (SNP: Intelligence and Security Committee Member) answering question SOT - Very political questiuon which I don't think we can answer - All we can say and all the report says is that they didn't seek the information - That's the real shock - Politics of the Commons is irrelevant - The fact is they did not seek to understand the impact or scope or scale of previous events including EU referendum - They should now do that so we can understand wh...