Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham exchanged text messages with someone impersonating Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, before growing suspicious that the contact was not genuine. Downing Street has declined to comment on the matter, which was first disclosed by Politico, citing officials familiar with the exchange.
According to Politico, officials said Burnham communicated with the person posing as Wiles for a period before he realised the contact was illegitimate, and that only a handful of messages passed between them.
A government spokesperson responded to enquiries with a brief statement, declining to elaborate further.
We do not comment on national security matters.
Sources familiar with the exchange said the contact between Burnham and the impersonator was limited to written messages, with no phone conversation taking place between the two.
No messages of significance
were exchanged, according to those sources, who added that the texts were
quickly reported to the appropriate authorities
once suspicions arose that the sender was not who they claimed to be.
When did the contact happen and what new details have emerged?
According to a report from a national newspaper, the messages sent to Burnham may have begun any time from mid-June, after he returned to Westminster following the Makerfield by-election. The same report states that Burnham did not speak with the impersonator by phone at any point, consistent with the account given by sources close to the matter. The report also notes that the British embassy in Washington raised concerns about the impersonation episode with counterparts at the White House.
Politico separately reported, citing four officials, that Burnham was contacted by the impersonator before he became suspicious of the exchange, broadly corroborating the account given by government sources.
Who is Susie Wiles and why was she targeted before?
The impersonation of Burnham echoes an earlier episode from May last year, when the FBI opened an investigation after someone posing as Wiles used her contacts to message senior US officials. At the time, Wiles said her personal phone had been compromised by an impersonator or impersonators who had mined it for contacts before reaching out to senators, governors and business executives.
According to the earlier newspaper report, the impersonator behind that 2025 campaign is understood to have used artificial intelligence to mimic Wiles' voice when contacting Republican politicians, and Wiles privately told colleagues that her personal cellphone had been hacked and used to extract a list of executive contacts. That campaign was not confined to one or two individuals but extended to messages and calls sent to multiple senators, governors and senior business figures.
Wiles, regarded as one of President Trump's closest allies, had also previously been targeted in 2024 by a cyber-espionage unit linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Has this happened to other UK officials before?
The Burnham case is not the first time a senior UK figure has been drawn into a hoax impersonation involving a foreign leader's inner circle. In 2024, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed that then-foreign secretary David Cameron had been the target of a hoax video call from someone posing as former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who led Ukraine between 2014 and 2019.
Lord Cameron also exchanged a small number of text messages with the impersonator posing as Poroshenko. During his time as prime minister, Cameron had held numerous direct dealings with the real Ukrainian leader, including meetings at international summits, which may have made him a plausible target for such an approach.
The Foreign Office said at the time that it chose to disclose the episode publicly because of concerns the exchange could be
manipulated
if it remained hidden.
What happens next?
The full scope of the messaging sent to Burnham, including its precise timing and content, remains unclear, and no public next step has been announced by either UK or US authorities, according to Politico's reporting. The FBI's investigation into the earlier impersonation of Wiles, opened after the May 2025 breach, appears to remain the principal formal inquiry referenced in reporting on the matter, though no new hearing or date has been disclosed.
Key Facts
- Andy Burnham exchanged a small number of messages with someone impersonating US chief of staff Susie Wiles.
- Officials say the contact may have begun as early as mid-June, after Burnham's return to Westminster following the Makerfield by-election.
- The FBI opened an investigation after a May 2025 breach in which an impersonator used Wiles' contacts to message senators, governors and business executives.
- The British embassy in Washington reportedly raised concerns about the incident with White House counterparts.
- In 2024, then-foreign secretary David Cameron was targeted in a separate hoax involving an impersonator posing as former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
