Stanley Johnson - Kompromat

After a while, Harriet Marshall said, ‘I’d like to call a lawyer.’

Later that morning, Jane Porter went to see the home secretary.

‘We’ve some pretty clear prima facie evidence that Russia has been trying to influence the result of the Referendum,’ she said.

Mabel Killick sighed. ‘I wish the beastly thing was over. Okay, Jane, just summarize the key points. What exactly is Russia doing? It’s all very well having stuff in the Guardian , but where’s the hard evidence?’

‘Well, Home Secretary.’ Jane Porter chose her words carefully. ‘We’ve been building the case for some time. First, there’s the so-called Referendum dossier, the one Barnard brought back from Russia. Did the Russians actually pay good money to the Conservative Party as a whole, or to the PM or Conservative Party chairman in particular, so as to ensure there was a commitment to the Referendum, first in the prime minister’s Bloomberg speech, and then in the Conservative manifesto?’

‘And what’s the answer to that question? Remind me,’ Mabel Killick asked. ‘I read Sir Oliver Holmes’ report. Very diplomatically phrased. Couldn’t make head or tail of it.’

‘I agree it’s complicated. Sir Oliver’s people are convinced the documents are genuine in the sense that that they were genuinely sent to or from the prime minister’s office. On the other hand, there is no evidence that money ever changed hands.’

‘No evidence of “cash for Brexit” transactions?’

‘None that they can find. But that’s not conclusive of course. These City folk are quite adept at covering their tracks.’

Mabel Killick obviously didn’t want to go further down that route. ‘Let’s leave that one for the moment. We’ll have to revert at some later date, I’m sure. What else do we have?’

‘The Russians have helped Leave nobble large chunks of the press and media to ensure that the Leave message gets maximum attention’.

‘And the third point?’

‘We think the Russians influenced Helga Brun, at a crucial moment on the immigration issue. There’s some suggestion of a long-standing link between the chancellor and Russian Intelligence.’

Mabel Killick groaned. ‘I can’t believe this. Don’t tell me there’s more.’

‘I’m afraid there is. Though we haven’t yet found the man who fired the shot, we suspect there may be some active Russian involvement here too. Harriet Marshall had a long meeting with a man we assume is her Russian handler on Hampstead Heath the day of the Oxford Union debate. We think they planned the assassination attempt there.’

Mabel Killick looked shocked. ‘Are you telling me that Harriet Marshall was ready to have her own leader, Edward Barnard, assassinated if that helped the Leave campaign gain another point or two in the polls?’

‘That is precisely what I suspect. And I’m suggesting that the key player throughout, on the Leave side at least, has indeed been Harriet Marshall. Our feeling is that’s she’s been a Russian sleeper ever since she left Oxford. As a matter of fact, we believe she may have actually been recruited while she was an undergraduate there, known as Howard Marshall. She was to be properly trained later – following a sex-change operation – when she worked in Moscow after leaving university. We always focus on Cambridge as a hotbed for Russian spies and seem to forget about Oxford.’

The home secretary, who had been at Oxford herself, commented acidly, ‘It’s hardly a badge of honour to be recruited by the KGB or FSB.’

She rose and paced the room in her smart leopard-skin shoes. ‘It’s too late to cancel the Referendum,’ she said. ‘The damage is done. If we go public with what we know, or suspect, the Leave campaign will laugh us out of court. They’ll say we’ve cooked the whole thing up in a last desperate move to discredit them before the vote. They’ll throw the book at us. How many authorizations do you have, Jane, for all those wire taps and surveillance operations? Are you sure your hands are clean? And, from what you’ve told me, I’m not sure your interrogator was playing strictly by the rules.’

Mabel Killick made up her mind. And once she had made up her mind, she was hard to sway.

‘We may not like it,’ she said. ‘But we are where we are.’

‘What do we do about Harriet?’ Jane Porter asked.

‘Put her on a plane to Moscow,’ the home secretary said. ‘And tell her not to come back. Not ever.’

At 6:00a.m. exactly on Friday June 24th, 2016, Noel Garnett, the BBC’s veteran reporter and commentator, announced that Vote Leave had secured more than half the votes cast. Britain had voted for Brexit.

At 8:15a.m. on that day, the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Jeremy Hartley, with his wife Miranda at his side, emerged from the famous black door at Number 10 Downing Street to concede defeat.

He gave a moving and statesman-like address.

‘Good morning, everyone.’ Hartley began. ‘The country has just taken part in a giant democratic exercise, perhaps the biggest in our history.

‘Over thirty-three million people from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar have all had their say.

‘There can be no doubt about the result.

‘I was absolutely clear about my belief that Britain is stronger, safer and better off inside the European Union, and I made clear the Referendum was about this and this alone — not the future of any single politician, including myself.

‘But the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path, and I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction.’

Many people in Britain, and indeed around the world, had stayed up all night. Others had just switched on their television sets or radios. Few doubted the sincerity of the prime minister’s feelings. Mabel Killick was one of them.

Later that morning, Jeremy Hartley received an urgent message from the home secretary, a message he could not ignore.

Soon after 1:00p.m., she entered Downing Street by the back door and was shown to the prime minister’s study with no officials present.

‘I’ve sat on it as long as I could, Prime Minister?’ Mrs Killick continued. ‘I wanted to be sure I had all the facts. But now I do have the facts, I don’t think I can keep quiet any longer.’

‘Keep quiet about what?’

‘The Referendum dossier, of course,’ the home secretary replied.

She took him through the evidence step by step.

‘Our experts have subjected the dossier to the most rigorous examination. We are convinced that every single document is genuine, and that includes the additions in your own handwriting to the draft of your Bloomberg speech, back in January 2013, when you wrote: “that is why I am in favour of a Referendum”. I admit we have not been able to trace the £10 million or £12 million paid by persons unknown in exchange for this commitment. But that doesn’t mean the transaction never occurred. Wouldn’t you agree? The expression “Laundromat” has a whole new meaning nowadays.

‘Forget about brown envelopes full of fivers in exchange for a putting down a few Parliamentary Questions,’ Mabel Killick continued. ‘Some would say that the whole future of our country seems to have been up for sale. As home secretary I am in charge of the police and law enforcement, and I am interested therefore in what precisely went on. Without prejudice, of course.’

The prime minister sighed. ‘I give you my word that I never asked anyone for money and I state categorically that no money was ever paid. That was just part of the Brexit dossier. I wanted to make it as convincing as possible and the financial aspect was crucial. People are always happy to believe the worst where money is involved.’