British intelligence officials angrily slapped down claims that President Donald Trump had been under surveillance by GCHQ during his election campaign, after they were repeated by the White House.
The UK’s usually tight-lipped electronic intelligence agency broke with its convention of not formally commenting on intelligence matters after Sean Spicer, Mr Trump’s press secretary, repeated the claims of a Fox News analyst that Barack Obama, the former president, had used GCHQ to do his dirty work.
“There’s no question that there were surveillance techniques used,” Mr Spicer said from the White House briefing room podium as he read aloud a series of media reports, which he argued backed up the president’s claims.