Burnham messages Trump aide impersonator before reporting concerns

Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with an unknown person posing as Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, before the contact was deemed suspicious and reported to authorities.

Downing Street declined to discuss the episode, which was first reported by Politico. A UK government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on national security matters.”

Politico reported that officials said Burnham communicated with the person claiming to be Wiles “before becoming suspicious that the contact was illegitimate” and that only a “few messages” were exchanged. The BBC reported that the contact took the form of messages and that there was no conversation between Burnham and the impersonator.

Sources said “no messages of significance” were exchanged and that the texts were “quickly reported to the appropriate authorities” once they were considered suspicious. The Guardian reported that the British embassy in Washington was concerned enough to raise the matter with the White House.

It is unclear when the messages were sent or what was discussed between Burnham and the person posing as Wiles. The Guardian noted that Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer in Downing Street on 20 July.

The incident follows earlier concerns involving attempts to impersonate or access communications linked to Wiles. The BBC has previously reported an FBI probe into Wiles’ phone being hacked in May last year. At the time, Wiles said her phone had been hacked after an impersonator, or impersonators, used her contacts file to message other senior figures in the United States.

That impersonation targeted her personal phone rather than a government device, but recipients included US senators, governors and senior business executives. The Wall Street Journal reported last year, according to The Guardian, that the FBI had launched an investigation into efforts to access Wiles’s phone after an unknown person pretending to be her contacted prominent Republicans and business chiefs.

Wiles, a key Trump ally, was also among those targeted in 2024 by a cyber espionage unit associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces.

The Burnham exchange also recalls a previous hoax involving a senior British official. In 2024, the Foreign Office confirmed that then-foreign secretary David Cameron had fallen victim to a hoax call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Lord Cameron also exchanged text messages with the impersonator. The Foreign Office said it released details publicly because of concerns the exchange could be “manipulated.”

The Guardian reported wider security concerns related to Trump’s White House, including that the president’s personal phone number was widely known among reporters covering US politics. It also reported that, in December 2025, a US defence department report concluded Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had endangered US service personnel by discussing details of a military operation in a group chat that included a journalist.

According to a source cited by The Guardian, Hegseth violated departmental policies by sharing secret information in a Signal chat. The chat became public after then national security adviser Mike Waltz added a journalist for The Atlantic, having saved the journalist’s number under someone else’s name. The group also included Vice-President JD Vance and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

The source said the defence department inspector general found the information Hegseth shared was secret and could have put US troops in danger if intercepted by an enemy force.