The Russia report could be damning for the Tories, but not for the reasons you think

The prime minister may be right that keeping it under wraps will be less costly than releasing it now. Even still, he has sacrificed a huge jab he might have used against Corbyn

Would, I wonder, the Intelligence and Security Committee of parliament’s report on Russia be drawing quite so much attention if the government were not giving every appearance of trying to suppress it?

The Home Office minister, Brandon Lewis, was the latest hapless figure to have been wheeled out to defend the non-release of the report, telling the BBC Today programme: “We’re now in purdah, which will delay that [publication] a little bit, but once the election is out of the way, we will publish that report.”

All right. But “a little bit” is quite a big bit when it covers the weeks of a general election campaign. And to use electoral “purdah” as the defence for non-publication (rather than the explanations proffered so far – still checking, need to be very careful, more to be done, etc) suggests, as has not been conceded by officialdom before, that the report has, potentially, been judged to contain information that could have a bearing on the election.