Andy Burnham messages exchanged with someone pretending to be one of Donald Trump‘s closest aides, officials claimed today.
The Prime Minister is said to have communicated with the person who impersonated White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a series of messages before becoming suspicious.
A source with knowledge of the messages said they were sent after Mr Burnham entered 10 Downing Street on July 20, but insisted they were “of no significance.”
Four officials who spoke anonymously confirmed the report Politicsand two of them said the British embassy in Washington had raised the issue with the White House.
No 10 has not yet explained the circumstances, with a government spokesperson simply telling the Daily Mail: ‘We do not comment on national security matters.’
But the Mail understands that no telephone conversation took place between Mr Burnham and the imposter, and the activity was quickly reported to the relevant authorities.
There are no details available about what was discussed or when the messages were sent, but British officials were reportedly concerned that Ms Wiles’ phone had been hacked again.
It comes after it was revealed last year that the FBI was investigating attempts by one or more unknown people to access Ms Wiles’ personal phone.
Andy Burnham is said to have exchanged messages with someone posing as Susie Wiles
She allegedly told people her phone had been hacked after an impersonator used her contact file to message other top officials in America.
That incident was first reported in May 2025 by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed the recipients included U.S. senators, governors and business executives.
The Burnham incident is one of many false communications attempts at members of the government over the decades.
Russian pranksters released footage of a video call with then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron in June 2024 after tricking him into thinking he was speaking to a former Ukrainian president.
Cameron made a 15-minute video call to someone posing as Petro Poroshenko before realizing he was the victim of a hoax.
Russian duo Alexei Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov – better known as Lexus and Vovan – were behind the incident, having duped a series of politicians over the years.
In March 2022, a video of a prank call on Defense Secretary Ben Wallace – again involving Lexus and Vovan – showed him thinking he was speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Downing Street later accused the Kremlin of being behind attempts to obtain sensitive or embarrassing information in ambiguous phone calls.
US President Donald Trump with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in October last year
In May 2018, the same pranksters impersonated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a phone call to Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary.
Mr Johnson discussed Britain’s relationship with Moscow and the Salisbury nerve agent attack with Lexus and Vovan, congratulating Mr Pashinyan on his “remarkable success”.
In January 2015, while Prime Minister, Mr Cameron received a hoax call on his BlackBerry from someone claiming to be on a high-level conference call.
The caller was transferred to Mr Cameron, who quickly hung up. The caller claimed to be Robert Hannigan, then director of GCHQ.
An imposter also managed to reach Tony Blair in Downing Street in 1998.
Radio stunt dealer Steve Penk played the trick on Blair as he left his morning briefing in 1998 with the help of impressionist Jon Culshaw.
Mr Culshaw voiced then-Opposition Leader William Haag and presented the Prime Minister with a Cher exercise video.
Mr Blair took the joke in good humour, laughing along and saying: ‘That’s quite a good imitation.’
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel has also admitted speaking to imposters, while a failed attempt targeted former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.
