Liz Truss’ phone was “clearly hacked” while she was foreign secretary, according to a minister.
It follows reports that private messages between Truss and foreign officials fell into the hands of agents suspected of working for the Kremlin.
A source told the Daily Mail that the phone was so heavily compromised that it had to be placed in a locked safe inside a secure government location.
The hack is said to have been discovered during the Conservative leadership campaign during the summer.
However, details of the incident were suppressed by the then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet secretary Simon Case, the Daily Mail reported.
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said there are “serious security questions” around why and how the information had been leaked.
Cooper has also called for an urgent investigation into the matter.
Speaking on Sky News on Monday, UK environment minister Mark Spencer said ministers get “quite a lot of briefing” on what to do and not to do by security services.
“The former prime minister was clearly hacked,” Spencer told the broadcaster.
“So, that is the first thing you do, say ‘oh my goodness, I’ve been hacked, help’, and the security services will help you with that challenge.
“Now, of course, you don’t always know which is why you’ve got to be super careful.”
It was put to Spencer that there is concern over whether Truss was speaking on a personal phone at the time of the breach.
“We all talk on personal phones, don’t we, you know?”, said Spencer.
“I ring my wife, maybe there’s some little man in China listening to the conversations between me and my wife.
“But, you know, you’ve just got to be careful about what information you use on which phone.
“And you get a lot of help and support from the security services on that.”
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