Prime Minister announces new National Centre for Information Defence

“Overcoming the forces of division and instability starts with national security,” affirmed Burnham. “We will keep investing in our defence, meeting our NATO commitments and strengthening European capabilities. We will be relentless in building up our hard power and deterrence, but we will not play Russia’s game of trading escalatory rhetoric. Unlike Russia, we do not seek confrontation.”  

The Prime Minister continued: “Instead, we will be prepared, but not panicked. Clear-eyed, but cool headed and unflinching in defending our people and our allies. True resilience depends on this military strength.”  

According to Burnham, the last ten years also tell us that it’s about something deeper as well. It’s about the strength of the social fabric that binds us together. There is no national security without a strong and cohesive society. That’s the starting point for everything we hold dear and everything we want to achieve, but the fact is that it has been under attack.”

Embellishing that last point, the Prime Minister stated: “In recent years, we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and that of many of our allies. Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears. They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations including universities and the BBC. We also have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election.”

Burnham pointed out: “The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information. We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community, in turn creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair. On top of that, we’ve witnessed cyber attacks on our companies and institutions. We know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will multiply the threat.”

Too much ground

As far as Burnham’s concerned, we have tiptoed around this issue for too long. “Over the last decade, we’ve given too much ground to those who want to run a negative and corrosive narrative about life in Britain, which bears no resemblance to reality. Well, no more. We are going to face the new decade in a different way and with our eyes wide open. We’re going to be much prouder in standing up for our values and the rule of law and we are going to help our people to strengthen their resilience. Faced with this information warfare, security starts in every home.”

The Prime Minister is now tasking the nation’s security chiefs to begin work on a new National Centre for Information Defence in order to “detect, attribute and disrupt” these kinds of hostile state information attacks and support and defend democracy. “This is a shared challenge,” stated Burnham, “so we are going to use our experience in the UK – and the fact that we’ve already been through this shock – to help other countries.”

Back in July last year, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in Parliament published a report on social media and misinformation in the wake of the Southport riots. Chi Onwurah MP, chair of the Committee, commented: “I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement of a single body to counter state disinformation threats. The amplification of false and harmful content does untold damage across our society.”

Onwurah continued: “We warned that Ofcom was ill-equipped to tackle misinformation from domestic as well as foreign sources. Our warning stands. The Prime Minister’s announcement will not tackle domestic disinformation and misinformation as seen in the recent riots in Belfast. As long as misinformation remains unchecked, there will always be routes for disinformation. We urge the Government to revisit the other recommendations in our July 2025 report, including measures to tackle the algorithmic amplification of legal, but harmful content.”

Strategic response

Responding to the Prime Minister’s announcement on behalf of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Sophie Williams-Dunning (research analyst in the Cyber and Tech team at the defence and security-focused Think Tank) explained: “The new National Centre for Information Defence is a welcome, if overdue step towards the UK mounting a more strategic response to foreign information warfare in the age of social media and AI.”

Williams-Dunning continued: “A National Centre with the job of detecting, attributing and disrupting foreign information operations – and pulling together intelligence, law enforcement and Government departments that haven’t always co-ordinated well – is a sensible response.”

Despite having a legal basis for countering foreign malign interference under the National Security Act 2023, Williams-Dunning believes the UK’s response has been “lacking” to date, notably so when compared to those of countries like France, Sweden, Ukraine and Taiwan, which already have dedicated agencies or Centres for Information Defence.

“Challenges will no doubt emerge,” affirmed Williams-Dunning. “This announcement will stoke debate about free speech and the right level of Government intervention. Genuine free-speech concerns will also be weaponised and amplified by the same inauthentic or malign networks that the new agency seeks to combat. The Prime Minister and his advisors will need to emphasise the legal basis and justification for this National Centre, including answering the question of whether it will remain under the Cabinet Office or eventually become a dedicated executive agency accountable to Parliament.”

Williams-Dunning added: “Maintaining good relationships with social media platforms will also be key. This has become trickier under the current US administration. Indeed, President Trump has himself presided over the dismantling of equivalent American anti-interference units and Task Forces. Andy Burnham’s decision to make his announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York is striking in this regard.”

In conclusion, Williams-Dunning noted: “The new National Centre will need to maintain effective relationships across Government, and with industry, civil society and international partners, so that it’s truly effective, while in parallel clearly articulating the mandate for its existence to the British public.”

Important role

Andrew Bud, founder and CEO of iProov, observed: “The new National Centre for Information Defence will have an important role to play, but its success will depend on how quickly it can move from identifying threats to actually disrupting them.”

Bud continued: “Deepfakes are becoming too sophisticated and too scalable for the Government to rely on individuals or platforms simply spotting fake content after the fact. The National Centre should be looking at the infrastructure behind these attacks, including how we verify that the people, accounts and communications we interact with online are genuine.”

Further, Bud said: “There’s a clear opportunity to connect this work with the UK’s emerging cyber resilience framework. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill recognises the need to protect the authenticity and integrity of data as part of securing essential services and this same principle needs to extend to the authenticity of the people and digital interactions upon which those services rely.”

In addition, Bud stated: “That means bringing identity verification and deepfake detection into the centre of the UK’s defensive strategy, alongside intelligence sharing and public education. If AI is industrialising deception, our response needs to be able to tell genuine from synthetic.”

Individual susceptibility

Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, commented: “The Prime Minister’s recognition that inequality can leave people more vulnerable to foreign influence is an important one, but we need to be careful not to frame this simply as a problem of individual susceptibility. If people lack reliable connectivity, the right devices, the skills to navigate online information safely or the confidence to know what they can trust, they’re being asked to participate in an increasingly complex digital world without the tools to do so safely.”

As the Government develops new agencies and legislation to strengthen the UK’s resilience, digital inclusion needs to be built into that infrastructure from the outset. “That means investing not only in connectivity and devices, but in digital skills, media literacy and trusted support alongside clear governance to ensure these protections reach the people most at risk of being left behind.”

According to Anderson: “A resilient digital society cannot just be one that protects its institutions from disinformation. It must also equip every citizen to participate safely within it. If we build new systems without addressing the digital inequalities that already exist, we then risk creating resilience for some, while leaving others exposed.”