The British government was given details last December of allegations made by former intelligence officer Christopher Steele that there were contacts between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Moscow, according to court papers.

Mr Steele was behind a dossier that emerged in January alleging the links, which Mr Trump's campaign denied.

Mr Steele and his company are currently defending a defamation case in the High Court in London brought by a Russian venture capitalist named in the dossier.

According to documents in the case Mr Steele in December handed a memo to a “senior UK government national security official acting in his official capacity on a confidential basis in hard copy form”.