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Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with a person posing as the chief of staff to US President Donald Trump.<\/b><\/p>\n
Downing Street has declined to comment on the security breach, first reported by Politico.<\/p>\n
Politico reported that officials said Burnham communicated with the person claiming to be Susie Wiles “before becoming suspicious that the contact was illegitimate” and claimed only a “few messages” were exchanged.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on national security matters.”<\/p>\n
It is understood the communication between Burnham and the person posing as Wiles was in the form of messages and there was no conversation between the two.<\/p>\n
“No messages of significance” were exchanged and the texts were “quickly reported to the appropriate authorities” once they were believed to be suspicious, sources said.<\/p>\n
The BBC has previously reported<\/a> an FBI probe into Wiles’ phone being hacked in May last year.<\/p>\n At that time, Wiles said her phone had been hacked after an impersonator, or impersonators, used her contacts file to message other top US officials.<\/p>\n The impersonation was targeted at her personal phone, not government phone, but recipients included US senators, governors and top business executives.<\/p>\n Wiles, a key Trump ally, was also among those targeted by a cyber espionage unit associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces – in 2024.<\/p>\n In 2024, the Foreign Office (FCDO) confirmed then-foreign secretary David Cameron had fallen victim<\/a> to a hoax call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.<\/p>\n Lord Cameron also exchanged some text messages with the impersonator pretending to be Poroshenko, who was president of Ukraine between 2014 and 2019.<\/p>\n During his term as prime minister, Lord Cameron had multiple dealings with the Ukrainian leader, including meetings at international summits.<\/p>\n The FCDO said it released details of the exchange publicly over fears it could be “manipulated”.<\/p>\n