Andy Burnham mistakenly exchanged messages with impersonator of top Donald Trump aide
Andy Burnham has been mistakenly exchanging messages with someone pretending to be a senior aide of Donald Trump.
Officials said the Prime Minister communicated with an impersonator who claimed to be White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
One source briefed on Downing Street communications said a “few messages” were exchanged after Mr Burnham entered No10 but were quick to insist they were "of no significance."
A Downing Street spokesman told Politico: "We do not comment on national security matters."
Officials said the British Embassy in Washington raised the issue with the White House after being concerned about the incident.
It follows an investigation launched by the White House and FBI after senators, governors and US business executives received texts and phone calls from someone claiming to be Mr Trump’s Chief of Staff.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms Wiles told associates her contacts on her mobile phone had been hacked.
What was discussed by Mr Burnham remains unclear, with the erroneous contact kept undisclosed.
While Mr Burnham is yet to meet with the President, Mr Trump had warm words for the new Prime Minister, adding he thinks the two are “going to have a very good relationship”.
Speaking to GB News in the White House earlier this month, the President said: "Two things are killing Europe. Number one is immigration. Number two is energy.
"When you look at the UK, they have one of the best energy fields in the world, North Sea oil. Now I think your new Prime Minister is going to actually open up the (North Sea), from what I hear.
"I spoke to him, and he sounded terrific on this subject. But you open it up, you’ll be a wealthy country. You keep it closed, you’re going to be a bankrupt country, which is what you are now. Essentially, you’re a bankrupt country."
The President added: “You’re sitting on top of gold, better than gold, and you don’t do anything with it. You have your choice. Not every country has that choice. Almost no country has that choice.”
Developers of the Rosebank oil field have welcomed the closure of a consultation as a "major step" ahead of a final decision from the Government on whether the project can go ahead.
Environmental activists fear the impact that extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s largest remaining untapped oil field, which lies about 80 miles west of Shetland, would have on climate change.
The decision on whether Rosebank and another planned North Sea development, the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, can go ahead will be a key environmental test for Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
Bosses at Adura, the company behind both projects, said they would result in £10.8billion of investment, with more than three quarters of this cash expected to be spent in the UK.
Between them, Rosebank and Jackdaw could support 3,500 jobs at the peak of construction, with 880 people then employed over the lifetime of production.
Adura added that Rosebank alone is projected to produce about 69,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, with this the equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of the anticipated output from the UK Continental Shelf.
The company said Rosebank and Jackdaw together have the potential to make up 10 per cent of domestic natural gas production.
A letter addressed to the Prime Minister penned by musician Brian Eno and co-signed by 200 major artists, including Robert Smith of The Cure, Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Ed O’Brien, said: "While the impacts of the climate crisis are already hurting us all, this is what you will be remembered for.”
Deputy director at the environmental campaign group Uplift, Robert Palmer, said: "While the oil and gas industry does everything in its power to push Burnham into Trump’s drill baby, drill agenda, the nation’s new Prime Minister has watched the UK and Europe burn baby, burn."
Mr Palmer said: "Enough is enough. Burnham needs to look out of the window and acknowledge that this project will make the climate crisis worse and do nothing but rip off Britain. Rosebank must be rejected once and for all.”
Angharad Hopkinson, from Greenpeace UK, also said: "In the midst of a devastating drought with the country literally on fire, the Government should look to the obscene profits of oil and gas companies to pay for some of the changes we desperately need to keep families and workers safe."