MI5 bosses introduced the unprecedented raft of emergency measures in response to growing fears that candidates were vulnerable to foreign cyber-attacks. MPs and their staff have been placed on high alert after it emerged some phone accounts had already being targeted by hackers. MI5 officers have ordered personal and political communications to be shut down with campaigns disrupted and election planning thrown into disarray.

MPs targeted by the shadowy cyber-criminals have been told to stay silent about the interference from a “foreign power” and instructed not to use any of their usual devices until they have been given the all-clear.

One was told there had been a “concerted effort to hack my accounts by a foreign power”.

MPs’ staff have been asked to report any unusual activity on phones and computers.

The cyber-security crackdown follows claims of Kremlin interference in previous UK elections.

A report from Parliament’s intelligence and security committee examines Russian meddling and sabotage in successive British elections and the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Downing Street says the document needs time to process the document but there are fears it is being withheld because it contains information that could have a bearing on the December 12 poll.

One source said: “If it shows the result of the referendum was affected by Russian intelligence then the underlying point of this election now could be called into question.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has blamed the “machinery of government” for the delay in publishing a report by the intelligence and security committee examining Russian influence in British politics.

Chairman of the committee Dominic Grieve had previously accused the Government of “sitting on the report” and said it was sent to the PM for approval on October 17.

He said: “There has been a lot of disquiet about the possibility of Russian interference.”

Mr Shapps admitted he was “not close” to the report but when asked why it had not been published he said: “Let me just explain how these things work within Government at this moment in time as you come up to an election.

“I wanted to publish some very trivial information, which was certainly not of any great, huge public interest, and I was blocked from doing so by the civil service machine because come an election you are not allowed to, into purdah, publish things which are seen as controversial in any way. So I suspect it’s just the machinery of Government.

“I just think as soon as you get to anything, as in the same way as spending plans and all the rest of it, the civil service machine will block almost any publishing come an election and I suspect that’s all that’s happened here, which is then being turned into ‘oh well there must be something here’ when it’s actually probably just the usual way that purdah, as it’s called, works.”

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However, Lord Evans of Weardale, who was MI5 director general until 2013, has backed calls for the report to be published before the election.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that if ministers were not prepared to release it, they should explain why.

He said: “In principle, I think it should be released.

“Part of the reason for having an Intelligence and Security Committee is that issues of public concern can be properly considered and the public can be informed through the publication of the reports once they have gone through the security process.

“If the Government have a reason why this should not be published before the election, then I think they should make it very clear what that reason is.”

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