THE Foreign Office is to probe claims that an Auchtermuchty-based, government-backed firm set up to tackle Russian disinformation has campaigned against Jeremy Corbyn.

The Institute for Statecraft, based in Gateside Mill, has received hundreds of thousands of pounds in Foreign Office money to combat Kremlin propaganda, but according to the Sunday Mail, leaked documents show it promoted newspaper articles critical of the Labour leader.

READ MORE: Labour hunting cross-party support for 'alternative Brexit'

One called Corbyn a “useful idiot”. It added: “His open visceral anti-westernism helped the Kremlin cause, as surely as if he had been secretly peddling Westminster tittle-tattle for money.”

Others targeted Corbyn’s right-hand-man, Seumas Milne. The Institute for Statecraft retweeted a report in the Times that said: “Milne is not a spy – that would be beneath him. But what he has done, wittingly or unwittingly, is work with the Kremlin agenda.”

The National:

The Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative was set up in 2015 to “counter disinformation and other forms of malign influence being conducted by states and sub-state actors seeking to interfere in democratic processes and to undermine public confidence in national political institutions”.

Last year they were paid £296,500 by the Foreign Office. This financial year, the sum was due to rise to £1,961,000.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry said question needed to be asked: “It is simply outrageous that the clearly mis-named ‘Integrity Initiative’ – funded by the Foreign Office to the tune of £2.25 million over the past two years – has routinely been using its Twitter feed to disseminate personal attacks and smears against the leader of the opposition, the Labour Party and Labour officials,” she said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said he had ordered an immediate investigation.

READ MORE: UK Labour pledge more powers for Scotland with a straight face

“I don’t know the facts but if there is any kind of organisation for which we are paying which is involved in domestic politics in that way, I would totally condemn it, and I have already over the weekend asked for a report to be on my desk by 10 o’clock this morning to say if there is any such activity,” he said.

The Institute of Statecraft said they were not a partisan organisation: “At no time has the Integrity Initiative engaged in party political activity and would never take up a party-political stance.

“Disinformation and malign influence from rogue states and certain non-state actors are a threat to democratic values and transcend any party political cause.”

Supporters of the group pointed out that it had also shared articles critical of the Tories and the SNP.