Brexit Party MEP challenged on her Cambridge Analytica involvement in EU parliament

Phillips became hostile in a session discussing foreign electoral interference and disinformation, when the conversation turned to her own involvement in disputed election processes.

The Brexiteer MEP was challenged after she spoke out about the court cases that the Brexit Party has undergone since the EU referendum.

“Before calling foul, check your facts, or you become the problem, not the solution,” she said.

Labour MEP Julie Ward then asked: “Would Miss Phillips please comment on the secret campaign work she did for the disgraced data mining and campaign consultancy Cambridge Analytica during the Kenyan presidential election in 2017, which I was an election observer for, for this parliament. And also comment on the subsequent lies she told about her involvement in that.”

According to a Channel 4 investigation, Phillips was part of a secret team deployed by Cambridge Analytica during the election, but denied it later when she was challenged.

MORE: Brexit Party MEP admits working in secret for Cambridge AnalyticaIn the EU parliament, Ward went on to describe how the company had masterminded an election campaign that “reignited tribal divisions in the country, resulting in dozens of politically motivated killings”, and added that the company had gone on to become involved in the Brexit referendum. The Kenyan election result, she said, was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court.

In reply, Phillips said that she had worked for “a British consultancy as a freelance contractor” for a company she claimed only later “folded into” Cambridge Analytica.

That claim in EU parliament contradicts what she said on a recording from 2017, when she said she was “under contract with Cambridge Analytica” and suggested she had been under a non-disclosure agreement about it.

Phillips also suggested that she would rather deal with the issue away from parliament in the privacy of her office, describing the public challenge as being “for political ends”.

“And funny- funny that she can contact me in person to ask about this, rather than taking her information from conspiracy theorists on Twitter, FBPE hashtag people who want to stir up misinformation,” said an increasingly riled Phillips.

“I am proud of the work I did for a progressive African president. That work is on record with the European parliament. And can I just say that isn’t for political ends, why didn’t she knock on my office door?” she asked, flinging the microphone away when she was done.