British Prime Minister Andy Burnham found himself at the center of a national security embarrassment just weeks into his tenure after exchanging messages with someone impersonating White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, four officials told Politico. The incident, which surfaced Aug. 17, 2026, prompted the British embassy in Washington to notify the White House.
Burnham, who took office July 20 after succeeding former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, reportedly engaged in the text exchange before growing skeptical and breaking off contact. The precise timing of the messages, the platform used, and the content of the exchange all remained unknown, as Downing Street declined to provide specifics.
A Brief Exchange Before Suspicion Set In
According to those familiar with the matter, Burnham communicated with the individual — who claimed to be Wiles, a top ally of President Donald Trump — before concluding the contact was not legitimate. Sources described the exchange as consisting of only a “few messages” of no significance. Once doubt arose, officials reported the texts to proper authorities. Details remained scarce — officials did not specify which messaging service was used, the total number of texts, or the topics discussed. A government spokesperson said only, “We do not comment on national security matters.”
No voice call took place between Burnham and the imposter, according to sources. Still, the British embassy in Washington considered the matter serious enough to alert the White House, two anonymous officials with knowledge of the situation said. A White House official told the BBC that the Burnham incident “had nothing to do” with an earlier breach involving Wiles, though both cases featured someone impersonating the same official, raising questions about how the imposter got contact details.
Wiles’ Phone Hack Fueled a Broader Scheme
The episode appears connected to a broader impersonation scheme that triggered an investigation earlier this year. In May of 2025, Wiles’ personal cell phone — not a government device — was hacked, and her contacts list was compromised. In the aftermath, US senators, governors, and top business executives reported receiving messages and calls from someone falsely claiming to be the White House chief of staff, triggering a joint White House and FBI investigation.
Separately, Wiles was among those targeted in 2024 by a cyber espionage unit linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces, adding another layer of concern about foreign interference.
UK Officials Have Been Targeted Before
The Burnham incident is far from the first time a senior British official has been duped by an imposter. In 2024, then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron was deceived by a hoax caller pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who served as Ukraine’s leader between 2014 and 2019. Cameron also exchanged text messages with the impersonator. The Foreign Office (FCDO) later publicly confirmed the incident, fearing it might otherwise be distorted or used for manipulation.
Two years earlier, government ministers fell victim to a similar ruse involving someone who pretended to be then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who held office from 2020 to 2025. The fraudulent contact came via Microsoft Teams. Former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace blamed Russian “dirty tricks,” and former Home Secretary Priti Patel confirmed she had also received one of those fraudulent calls. A Ministry of Defence source called the video call “fairly sophisticated,” suggesting it had been routed through “another government department.”
UK Government Moves to Tighten Security
The revelation about Burnham came as the British government was already scrambling to address a separate but related lapse: personal mobile numbers belonging to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, Justice Secretary Alex Norris, and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant had been publicly accessible online and were being taken down from those sites, officials said.
A government spokesperson sought to reassure the public that security protocols remained sound, saying the government had “robust procedures in place to ensure the security of sensitive information.” Still, the string of incidents — from hoax calls in 2022 to Cameron’s 2024 deception to the fresh embarrassment involving Burnham — has kept questions alive about how reliably British officials can verify the identities of those who contact them, especially when those contacts purport to be senior figures in allied governments.
For Burnham, who had been prime minister for less than a month when the incident surfaced, the episode injected an unwanted national security storyline into the earliest days of his administration. As of the time of reporting, no further details about the content of the messages had been disclosed by either Downing Street or Washington.