Andy Burnham held a message exchange with someone masquerading as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff widely seen as one of Donald Trump’s most influential aides, it has been reported.
News of the contact, first broken by Politico, alarmed staff at the British embassy in Washington to the point that they raised the matter directly with counterparts inside the White House.
A Downing Street source confirmed that the Prime Minister had exchanged messages with the impersonator, but insisted the content was inconsequential. Even so, the episode is likely to fuel unease over security protocols at the top of government, given fears that Ms Wiles’ phone may once again have fallen into the wrong hands.
In May 2025, someone impersonating Ms Wiles reportedly used artificial intelligence to mimic her voice while contacting her own phone contacts, in some cases asking for money and requesting presidential pardons. Ms Wiles later told colleagues that her personal mobile had been compromised and used to harvest details of senior contacts.
“Burnham got played by an impersonator of one of Trump’s top aides within weeks of entering No. 10. He messaged away, only realised something was off later, and officials are now scrambling to claim it was harmless. The British embassy still had to brief the White House. Absolute amateur hour at the highest level.”
The FBI opened an inquiry into that earlier breach, and at the time the White House said it treated staff cybersecurity “very seriously,” while the FBI said it approached all threats against the president with the “utmost seriousness.”
It is not yet clear exactly when or what was discussed in the messages sent to Mr Burnham, though the contact is thought to have occurred no earlier than mid-June, when he returned to the Commons after winning the Makerfield by-election. Sir Keir Starmer stood down as Prime Minister days later, clearing the way for Mr Burnham to take the Labour leadership unchallenged.
Officials say Mr Burnham never spoke to the impersonator by phone, and that the matter was flagged to the relevant authorities as soon as it was recognised as suspicious.
Pattern of impersonation attempts
Officials in Washington warned last year of a sustained campaign in which fraudsters posed as senior US figures to deceive their targets by text and voice message. Investigators have previously linked comparable hacking efforts to actors working on behalf of Iran during the closing stages of Mr Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Cybersecurity breaches have dogged the administration more broadly. A hacker gained access to messaging used by Mike Waltz, the former national security adviser, in April 2025, while officials have also acknowledged that a Chinese-linked operation known as Salt Typhoon monitored calls made by high-ranking American figures.
Mr Burnham is not the first British politician caught out by an impostor. In 2015, prank callers reached Lord Cameron by posing as the head of GCHQ, and he later took a hoax call while foreign secretary from someone claiming to be a former Ukrainian leader — footage of which was released publicly. In 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Sir Ben Wallace and Dame Priti Patel were drawn into video calls with people pretending to be Ukrainian officials before growing suspicious and cutting contact.
Reaction
Ben Habib, chairman of the Great British PAC, was critical of the Prime Minister’s handling of the episode, saying: “Burnham got played by an impersonator of one of Trump’s top aides within weeks of entering No. 10. He messaged away, only realised something was off later, and officials are now scrambling to claim it was harmless. The British embassy still had to brief the White House. Absolute amateur hour at the highest level.”
Downing Street said it would not comment on matters of national security, and the White House also declined to comment.
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