UK has had to rethink US ‘special relationship’ after Donald Trump accused British spies of disturbing him

Donald Trump’s accusations that Britain spying on him threaten the special relationship between Britain and the US has been revealed.

The former president’s baseless accusations in March 2017 even led to a rethink of how the two countries interact.

After the president’s brazen statements, intelligence agencies on both sides of the pond are trying to contain the fallout.

In the UK, GCHQ issued an unusual rebuttal to the claims, calling them ‘complete nonsense’ as it broke with tradition of denying them on file.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, officials from the US intelligence community backed their British counterparts and even offered to testify that it was the ‘master BS’.

Despite this behind-the-scenes support, Theresa May, who was Prime Minister at the time, said it made the UK ‘start thinking about relationships’ and suggested it would ‘ going well’.

The special relationship between Britain and the US became strained when Donald Trump accused British spies of wiretapping him. Here he is pictured with Theresa May, who was Prime Minister when he made the accusations

GCHQ is believed to have eavesdropped on Trump while he was a presidential candidate, which US intelligence officials deny. Pictured is GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

The revelations come from a new book – The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The Untold Story of the International Spy Network, by Richard Kerbaj – excerpts have been published in The Sunday Times.

It details the history of the intelligence alliance between Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – a treaty that has its roots in the Second World War.

And while for most of the past eight decades the relationship has been a stable one, the book claims the actions of the previous president caused some tense moments.

In her book Theresa May says that the ‘volatile environment’ in the US under Trump has caused many problems.

“It would be helpful not to have to adjust to that sort of thing, but in a sense we have to start thinking about relationships,” she said.

‘Relationships have been going on for so long and there is always an assumption of smooth relationships.’

This was further aggravated in March 2017 when former New Jersey Superior Court judge Andrew Napolitano took to Fox News and said that Barack Obama had ordered GCHQ to carry out a ‘eavesdropping’ on Trump while he was arguing. nominate the president.

This statement, which would later see Napolitano temporarily taken off by Fox, was quoted by Sean Spicer, a White House spokesman, during a press conference.

This sparked frantic conversations between two top GCHQ officials – Ciaran Martin, head of the National Cuber Security Center, and his boss Robert Hannigan, head of GCHQ – who drafted it. draft a statement rejecting the claim.

The controversy erupted after former judge Andrew Napolitano claimed GCHQ was involved in wiretapping Trump. Napolitno, pictured here in 2011 on Fox Business Network, was later pulled from the channel because of his comments

The statements prompted a frenzied response from GCHQ, with senior officials Ciaran Martin (left) and Robert Hannigan (right) both involved in drafting a statement denying the allegation.

In the United States, intelligence officials have sought to soften the matter by saying they see no benefit in the ‘baseless accusations’ and that they will support any move GCHQ wants to take. show to respond.

GCHQ’s final statement read: ‘Recent allegations by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano that GCHQ was ordered to carry out “eavesdropping” against the then-elected president are nonsense. They are completely absurd and should be ignored. ‘

This was advocated in the US by Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the NSA, who allegedly told Trump ‘this is not how this relationship works’, and who threatened to publicly corroborate the claims. statement is incorrect.

In the book, Mrs May said that the decision to go public against the president was to protect the special relationship.

“It is important to make sure that nothing is wrongly said that could jeopardize that relationship,” she said.

• The Secret History of Five Eyes: The Untold Story of the International Spy Network, by Richard Kerbaj, will be published by Blink on September 1 for £25