British Prime Minister Duped Into Messaging Fake White House Chief of Staff | JP
The newly elected Prime Minister of the UK is probably a little red-faced at the moment.
I’m not sure if that makes him “cheeky”, or if that’s a completely different thing all together.
But if any of those words means EMBARASSED — that’s what I’m trying to say.
PM Andy Burnham handled a scammer from an unknown number just about as tactfully as my father-in-law, who makes it a daily ritual to argue with the junk callers.
The only difference is that my father-in-law doesn’t have his finger on any nuclear codes and doesn’t head up a national government, that I know of.
Burnham on the other hand, as the nuclear-wielding head of the United Kingdom, apparently traded messages back and forth from an unknown number claiming to be President Trump’s Chief of Staff recently.
How big of a deal is that?
It was serious enough that the British reached out to the White House, as reported by CNN:
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone impersonating the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who is one of US President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, a source with knowledge told CNN.
It’s unclear when the exchange happened or what was discussed but Politico, which first reported the breach on Monday, said the British embassy in Washington was so concerned it raised the incident with the White House. Downing Street told CNN it does not comment on national security matters.
Burnham became Britain’s prime minister on July 20, but was effectively the country’s prime minister-in-waiting for a month prior to that when he re-entered parliament.
Phishing attempts have continued with people associated with Wiles in recent months after an incident in May 2025 when US law enforcement launched an investigation into efforts to impersonate her. (Emphasis added.)
Did you catch that part where the Prime Minister’s people reported back to CNN that their policy is to avoid discussing ‘national security matters’?
That’s funny — because most of the statements coming from UK officials about this incident have desperately tried to characterize it as just a few meaningless messages of no importance.
In other words, they actually are commenting on the ‘national security matter’, and claiming there was no danger.
Of course, no “official” word from the UK government on the details of the SECURITY BREACH. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself there.)
Along those lines, check out this clip from the British news channel, GBN, indicating that the UK government is trying their best to be dismissive of any security concern, while the news anchors themselves are clearly not buying it:
‘This cuts to the core of the security concern people have in Washington.’
GB News Deputy Political Editor @Tomhfh reacts after Prime Minister Andy Burnham held an extended conversation with an imposter impersonating White House official Susie Wiles. pic.twitter.com/46hlqfsK8R
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 17, 2026
If you watched that clip, you heard the British news anchors repeat the concerns that initially spread from the UK government.
The initial story was that Susie Wiles phone had been hacked again, as it appeared to have been last year.
I’ll note that if that were the case, the British Prime Minister might not have anything to be red-faced about after all.
Wouldn’t it be fortunate for the Prime Minister if that had been the case?
But the White House pushed back against that claim, according to this from Politico:
The new PM communicated with someone posing as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before becoming suspicious that the contact was illegitimate, the officials said.
“We do not comment on national security matters,” Downing Street said. One person briefed on the communications said a “few messages” were exchanged after the PM entered No. 10 but insisted they were “of no significance.”
Inside the U.K. government, there were fears that Wiles’ phone had been hacked again.
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A White House official said: “This incident had nothing to do with the Chief of Staff’s devices being hacked.” (Emphasis added.)
In fact, the reporting indicates this was not a call from Susie Wiles’ number, or even a spoofed number that only appeared to be hers.
Rather, it came from an unknown number.
And the big story on the UK side of things isn’t that the scammer pretended to be President Trump’s Chief of Staff.
Besides even the fact that PM Burnham answered the unknown number — how did the scammer have the British Prime Minister’s phone number to begin with?
Here’s another clip from the British news channel GBN in which they raise exactly that question:
‘That surely should raise some level of concern for all of us.’@tomhfh highlights a national security concern after Andy Burnham was tricked into responding to text messages from someone pretending to be Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff. pic.twitter.com/lChWVD9qbD
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 17, 2026
As the GBN anchor quipped, someone accessed the UK Prime Minister’s personal phone number.
And has that been fixed?
Top UK government officials STILL have their numbers readily accessible — making them prime targets for these types of fake messages — as was reported in The Guardian:
At least three UK cabinet ministers have had their personal mobile phone numbers published online, amid mounting concern over the security of senior politicians after Andy Burnham was targeted by an impersonation scam.
The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, the justice secretary, Alex Norris, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Bryant, had their numbers available online with their names.
A reference containing Streeting’s number has since been removed, a source told the Guardian, noting he does all his government business on his official government phone. Officials are understood to be working to take down the others.
The leak, first revealed by Politico, come after Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
Downing Street refused to say if any measures had been taken to prevent another breach happening. No 10 refused to say whether Burnham was embarrassed that he had communicated with the impostor, and declined to say if the messages were exchanged on WhatsApp. (Emphasis added.)
Downing Street’s reliance on the “we don’t talk about national security matters” has essentially allowed UK officials to claim the security breach wasn’t a security breach.
Meanwhile, in other news…
President Trump said he had a ‘good conversation’ with PM Andy Burnham today to discuss some important matters:
‘If they open up the North Sea the UK will be rich again’
Donald Trump says he has had a ‘good conversation’ with Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
He says he thinks the PM will open up the North Sea, adding he will have ‘solved’ the UK’s ‘energy problem’ if he does. pic.twitter.com/dwK9aClOVg
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 17, 2026
I have to wonder if the Prime Minister was sweating bullets, wondering all the while if Trump was really Trump!
What are the odds old Burnahm asked President Trump to mention the call publicly in front of cameras because he needed some sort of verification?
That sounds implausible, right?
Except, against the backdrop of the UK Prime Minister answering unknown numbers and trading messages with an unverified scammer claiming to be Susie Wiles — who knows!?