A former al-Qaeda operative who became an FBI informant said today that he had raised concerns about one of the London Bridge attackers two years ago.

Jesse Morton told The New York Times that he had alerted his American handlers to the fact that Khuram Butt, 27, had a rising role in online chatrooms run by al-Muhajiroun, the banned organisation led by the hate preacher Anjem Choudary. “My handler got back to me and said it was ‘excellent work’ and forwarded it to the head office,” he said.

Mr Morton, who recruited online for al-Qaeda before being jailed, later agreed to work undercover for American police. He said he did not know whether his concerns were passed to the British authorities. The FBI did not