The Prime Minister was in retreat last night over his ‘lies’ about Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

In an embarrassing U-turn Andy Burnham admitted he has no evidence that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 vote, a claim he made just 24 hours earlier.

Yesterday Boris Johnson told the Daily Mail that ‘Burnham’s Brexit lies have come back to bite him’. And Nigel Farage branded Mr Burnham’s comments ‘outrageous’, adding: ‘The Prime Minister is a liar.’

Despite the climbdown, the PM vowed to press ahead with his bid to unpick Brexit, claiming it would be a ‘dereliction of duty’ to ignore the chance for a closer relationship with Brussels.

He said sticking with the status quo was ‘not good enough for Britain’ as he opened the door to a return to free movement with the EU after the next election.

Mr Burnham faced a fierce backlash after resurrecting discredited conspiracy theories on Sunday that the referendum result was influenced by Moscow.

He told the podcast The Rest is Politics, co-hosted by former Labour spin chief Alastair Campbell, that on arriving in No10 he had asked officials whether there was evidence Russia had interfered in the campaign.

‘I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was,’ Mr Burnham said. ‘These things are important now to put clearly on the record.’

Ministers, however, struggled to defend the claim yesterday and Downing Street was eventually forced to clarify that the PM accepts the referendum result was ‘legitimate’.

In the Commons yesterday Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded the PM ‘publish the evidence that Russia swung the result of the 2016 referendum’. She added: ‘The Prime Minister implied that the result was illegitimate because of Russian interference. Where has that come from?

‘We all remember that in 2018, the head of MI5 said that there was no evidence that Russia had influenced the EU referendum result.

‘Even this morning, the Prime Minister’s own foreign minister could not say if the evidence existed.’

Mr Burnham insisted he had ‘implied no such thing’. He conceded he had no evidence that the Kremlin had influenced the outcome of the vote.

Read More: Burnham is in retreat over Russia Brexit ‘lies’: Boris and Farage blast PM’s referendum claim