UK says 'inappropriate' to comment on hacking of former trade minister's email

The British government said on Monday it would be "inappropriate" to comment on a Reuters report that said classified U.S.-UK documents leaked ahead of Britain's 2019 election were stolen from the email account of former trade minister Liam Fox.

"There is an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were acquired, and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this point," a government spokeswoman said. "But as you would expect, the government has very robust systems in place to protect the IT systems of officials and staff," the spokeswoman added.