The Russia report may be drawing blanks but our democracy has still been damaged

Editorial: While we don’t know as much as we should, the result is that the 2016 referendum will remain contested and controversial for ever, a constant source of distraction and anger

If, as seems likely, one of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy objectives is to weaken, divide and disorient the UK, then he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

There have long been suspicions that Russian agents, formal and informal, have been at work attempting to skew British democratic elections. According to the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Russia Report, this may date back to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and the Brexit referendum of 2016. The government has strongly suggested it extended to the 2019 general election.

The problem, with the Brexit referendum in particular, is that no one quite knows anything for sure. This is mainly because the May and then the Johnson government flatly refused to ask the security services to find out.