David Shayler, 49, has released a video on YouTube claiming there is "much evidence" that jihadis were not behind the atrocities which left 130 people dead in the French capital.

The former MI5 officer instead claimed "dark forces" linked to western intelligence services were behind the attacks on November 13.

Several years before Edward Snowden left the US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 and leaked confidential details of its spying techniques to the press in, Mr Shayler resigned from MI5 after five years working there in 1996.

He then leaked a series of details about MI5 operations, including claims MI6 was involved in a February 1996 failed assassination of former Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.

He also claimed the 1993 Bishopsgate and 1994 Israeli Embassy bombings were known to the intelligence services in advance of being carried out and could have been prevented.

After leaking details to the Mail on Sunday in 1997, he fled to Utrecht in the Netherlands and later France, where he spent two years from 1998 to 2000 living in Boulevard Voltaire, where the Bataclan Theatre - the scene of the worst atrocity of the day took place, according to his video.

He said: "I think there is some dark design in the pattern of the attacks that took place in Paris on Friday, November 13.