Exclusive: MPs who drew up the #Russia report were told the #Kremlin has a "likely hold" over Donald #Trump and there were "indications" #Moscow interfered in and may have covertly funded the 2016 #Brexit vote  - my new book Shadow State reveals https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/22/boris-johnson-theres-may-ignored-claims-russia-had-likely-hold-over-donald-trump-ex-spy-christopher-steele-claims

The evidence - given by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele - is the most compelling explanation so far as to why Boris #Johnson still refuses to publish the missing #Russia report, which he suppressed before last December's UK general election

In a confidential 2018 memo to the British parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC) Steele accuses Theresa May and Johnson - at that point foreign secretary - of putting "party political interests" above "national security" - a "serious mistake", in his view

Steele says in late 2016 he raised concerns with the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee that the #Russians had leverage over #Trump. May's government however, "threw a blanket" over the allegations. It was afraid of offending the president-elect and jeopardizing a US trade deal

#Johnson has yet to reform the ISC. The six month delay is unprecedented. It's unclear how much of Steele's evidence appears in the final #Russia report but I'm told his analysis was a "route map" for the cross-party committee, chaired by then Tory MP Dominic Grieve

Steele's evidence features in my new book Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and #Russia's Remaking of the West, which is published next week in New York and London. It's a sequel to the #1 NYT best seller #Collusion https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-State-Murder-Russias-Remaking/dp/1783352051/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1V82NYZD5KD0N&dchild=1&keywords=shadow+state&qid=1592406328&s=books&sprefix=shadow+state%2Caps%2C143&sr=1-1

Today's story written with my colleague @DanSabbagh. Steele's evidence will pile further pressure on Downing Street to publish the #Russia report. Bear in mind the missing 50-page document - which officials say is "discursive" - contains a public and a secret section

Steele told the ISC that the May/Johnson government was more reluctant than its predecessors "to see (or act upon) intelligence on #Russian activities when this presents difficult wider political implications" - in other words raises embarrassing questions over #Brexit + #Trump

Steele adds: "Examples of this include reporting on the #Kremlin’s likely hold over president #Trump and his family/administration and indications of
#Russian interference in and clandestine funding of the #Brexit referendum"

In his ISC memo Steele says the #Russian elite has established a powerful lobby in London via "lavish expenditure and investment". UK professional service firms including lawyers, accountants and PRs have furthered Moscow's "nefarious" interests, both wittingly and unwittingly

Vladimir Putin's #Russia is a "powerful rogue state", Steele told the #ISC. He notes the #poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko: "No terrorist group has deployed a nerve agent in a civilian area or used a radioactive mini-bomb in London. The Kremlin has done both"