MPs call for more funding to counter disinformation abroad

MPs have urged the Government to boost funding to the Foreign Office and the BBC World Service in efforts to counter disinformation abroad.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has called for cash to be taken from the planned defence uplift to increase funding and staffing in the Hybrid Threats Directorate.

It also said the BBC World Service should be funded in the long term because accurate, impartial news is “essential to the UK’s national security and overseas interests”.

The UK is among Nato allies who have signed up to spend 5% of their economic output on defence in line with demands by US President Donald Trump, comprised of 3.5% spending on core defence and 1.5% on security and resilience measures by 2035.

Committee chairwoman Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, called organised disinformation the “new warfare” and said that open liberal democracies are “sitting ducks”.

She said: “Russia’s hybrid attacks in particular amount to a state of war against the West.

“The work of the FCDO in Eastern European countries is remarkable, but it is very disappointing to see that the FCDO lacks the resource to do more and meet the ever-increasing need elsewhere.

“Our report calls for an increase in funding to be drawn from the planned 5% defence and national security uplift.

“After all, if Russia is already conducting information warfare against the West, the UK must be ready to defend itself.”

The report calls the decision to fund the BBC World Service through the licence fee, which has been frozen for two years, “ill advised” and said it has led to a reduction in its global footprint.

It warns that these cutbacks in language service have left gaps that could be filled by state actors, citing the example of the former BBC Arabic station’s frequency in Lebanon being filled by Russian state-backed broadcaster Sputnik.

The MPs urge the Government to provide the BBC World Service with a further increased funding settlement, drawn in part from the defence budget, saying additional funding already promised for the next three years is likely to be “flat” when inflation is accounted for.

“If the BBC World Service does not receive the funding it needs, it will continue to contract with a diminishing influence.

“Its loss would significantly diminish the UK’s soft power and undermine our ability to counter information warfare,” the report argues.