Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson has called for an inquiry into whether the EU referendum was "stolen".

He asked the Government to confirm whether the National Crime Agency is investigating claims that there was Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, when the nation voted for Brexit.

And he said that if the answer was no, then there should be a public inquiry instead.

Mr Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, was speaking at an event to promote independent journalism. He also highlighted the comments on Twitter, saying: "I called on the government to confirm the National Crime Agency is investigating Russian links to Leave.EU.

"If not, we need a public inquiry. It is time the British people were told whether the EU referendum result was stolen by the Russian state."

Tom Watson

Leave.EU was an independent pro-Brexit campaign, separate to the official "Leave" campaign in the 2016 referendum.

It has been reported that millionaire Arron Banks, who donated to Leave.EU, had meetings with the Russian ambassador to Britain and visited Moscow at the height of the campaign.

Mr Watson is not the only West Midlands MP to call for an inquiry into the referendum.

Liam Byrne (Lab Birmingham Hodge Hill) told the House of Commons in July that the Brexit vote was "corrupt" because it was "bought quite possibly with Russian money", after official campaign Vote Leave was referred to the police and fined £61,000, for breaking electoral law.

Mr Byrne asked the Government to "ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider a joint enterprise prosecution so that it's not just the staff of these campaigns that are prosecuted, but the governing minds as well."

Some Labour activists hope to secure a vote at the party conference in September which could lead to Labour supporting a second referendum on Brexit.

Mr Watson has said in the past that it is "highly unlikely" Labour would support a second vote, but "we haven’t taken that off the table".