Michael Gove doesn't rule out Kremlin hack of Liz Truss' phone

Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, on Sunday did not deny that the cyber attack had taken place on the former prime minister’s phone.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Kremlin agents who hacked Ms Truss’s phone while she was foreign secretary are thought to have gained access to sensitive exchanges with foreign officials on Ukraine, as well as private conversations with Kwasi Kwarteng.

Asked about the allegations, Mr Gove told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I don’t know the full details of what security breach, if any, took place.

“What I do know is that the Government has very robust protocols in place in order to make sure that individuals are protected, but also that Government security and national security are protected as well.”

He said he could not discuss national security matters, as “loose lips can sink ships when it comes to these questions”.

The newspaper also claimed details of the breach, apparently discovered when Ms Truss was running for the Tory leadership in the summer, were “suppressed” by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet secretary Simon Case.

Mr Gove said: “I’m sure that Liz, both as foreign secretary and as prime minister, will have followed the advice that she was given by the intelligence and security communities.

“The more that we talk in detail about these things, the more that we risk giving information to people who wish this country and its citizens harm.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the claims raise issues around “cybersecurity … the role of hostile states, but also the allegations about whether a Cabinet minister has been using a personal phone for serious government business, and serious questions about why this information or this story has been leaked or briefed right now”.

The alleged phone hack, as well as the reappointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary just six days after she was forced out over a security breach, “raises wider concerns about the way in which the Government is not taking seriously enough these issues around national security”, said the Labour MP.

It comes as Mr Gove suggested that Liz Truss’ levelling up policies were “under review” following his return to the role.

The policy, which could lead to planning laws and environmental protections being ripped up for the sake of growth, had caused widespread concern from environmental campaigners.

Asked if the zones – a key part of Ms Truss’s policy platform – are going ahead, he said: “I’m reviewing them.

“We need to make sure that any change that we make is one which of course helps to support economic growth and good jobs for people, but also one of the concerns raised about investment zones was the impact on the environment.

“I’ve been very clear and the Prime Minister has been very clear that under no circumstances will we weaken environmental protections.

“So I will be looking with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the Environment Secretary and with the Prime Minister at the proposals that were drawn up when Liz was prime minister… and anything that might in any way undermine environmental protections is out.”