Nigel Farage has become the only senior British political figure to oppose the government’s new unit for countering Russian disinformation.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the National Centre for Information Defence at the United Nations General Assembly. The centre will detect, attribute and disrupt information attacks by hostile states, targeting online lies, deepfakes and coordinated campaigns.

Farage, leader of Reform UK, claimed the unit was “targeted directly” at his party and would stifle free speech. He compared it to George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

“Be in no doubt: there are bots online. They come from Russia, India and elsewhere, and they do try to influence our thinking,” Farage said. “But this will be used to clamp down on free speech.”

The plan drew cross-party support. Labour’s Emily Thornberry called it overdue, while Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs also backed the move.

Burnham accused Russian agencies of using bots, fake websites and falsified articles, and said Moscow spends about 1.3 billion pounds a year manipulating information.