British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone impersonating Donald Trump's chief of staff, in a security lapse that prompted the UK embassy in Washington to raise the matter with the White House.
The communications with a person posing as Susie Wiles were of no significance and quickly reported to authorities, officials said, after Burnham became suspicious that the contact was illegitimate. The impersonator targeted the prime minister shortly after he succeeded Keir Starmer in Downing Street on July 20, the same day Burnham first spoke with Trump by phone.
The incident echoes a 2024 hoax call to then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron by someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Wiles' phone was also reportedly hacked last year, part of a broader pattern of impersonation attempts targeting senior political figures.