UK prime minister duped by email impersonator posing as White House chief of staff

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with an individual impersonating White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to media reports on Monday. Politico, citing unnamed sources, said Burnham sent "a small number of messages" via an unspecified communication channel to the person he believed was Wiles, before later becoming suspicious.

The website reported that the British embassy in Washington considered the incident serious enough to raise it with the White House. Details and timing of the correspondence have not been disclosed. A spokesperson for Burnham's office said it does not comment on matters related to national security, but did not deny the exchange took place.

Burnham is not the first British politician to fall victim to such scams. In 2024, the UK government released a video of a phone call in which then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron was tricked by someone posing as former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. The Foreign Office said at the time that it disclosed the incident to preempt any attempt to manipulate the recording.