David Lammy reportedly gave the prime minister the telephone number of somebody impersonating a senior White House official. Downing Street has responded by placing the embarrassment somewhere the public cannot inspect it.
Lionel Carter reports · 28 August 2026
David Lammy has emerged as the leading candidate for Beyond Parliament’s Excuse of the Week, after reportedly passing Andy Burnham the telephone number of somebody pretending to be Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
Mr Burnham then exchanged several messages with the mystery contact before becoming suspicious and reporting it through official channels.
No messages of significance are believed to have been exchanged. Unfortunately, neither was any basic verification.
Britain’s relationship with the most powerful government on Earth was therefore briefly conducted using the same security procedure employed when buying a second-hand wardrobe on Facebook Marketplace.
A special relationship request
Reports suggest Mr Lammy believed the contact was genuine when he passed the number to the new prime minister.
This is reassuring. The alternative would be that former foreign secretaries routinely distribute unverified White House telephone numbers for recreational purposes.
The British embassy subsequently raised the matter with Washington. The White House confirmed that Ms Wiles’s own devices had not been compromised, while officials said the messages were quickly recognised as suspicious and properly reported.
Downing Street has declined to provide further details because it does not comment on matters of national security.
And there it is.
Westminster’s diplomatic fire blanket: national security.
A phrase capable of covering espionage, terrorism, military operations and one minister forwarding a dodgy contact without first asking, “How do I know this is actually you?”
Nothing to be embarrassed about
Mr Burnham has said he is not embarrassed and that nothing consequential was shared.
That may be correct. Britain’s secrets remain secure, principally because the conversation appears to have ended before anybody found one.
Nevertheless, the incident raises a small procedural question: if somebody texts a senior politician claiming to be an important American official, does anybody check?
Apparently they do—eventually.
Usually after the prime minister has replied.
The fraudster could perhaps have been exposed sooner by asking a security question only the genuine White House would know, such as:
“What has Donald Trump just said that everybody is currently pretending not to have heard?”
Lionel’s verdict
For passing an unidentified stranger directly to the prime minister and helping transform a wrong number into classified information, David Lammy becomes this week’s strongest candidate for Excuse of the Week.
His official citation reads:
For successfully converting an embarrassing wrong number into a matter of national security.
The telephone has now been transferred to Westminster Lost Property.
Nobody has claimed it.
Although three former ministers have asked whether it contains any job offers.
Sources: The Times, LBC, The Guardian
Lionel Carter
Beyond Parliament