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British spies alerted America to the Russian cyber attack after thwarting Moscow’s attempt to target the 2015 general election .

A classified intelligence report on Russia’s influence over the race to the White House detailed how UK officials tipped off their US counterparts after the Democratic National ­Convention, according to the New York Times.

GCHQ had prevented a breach of every Whitehall server in 2015, including the Home Office , Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence.

The plot – linked to plans to infiltrate all major British broadcasters after a successful attack on a French TV channel in April 2014 – was initially blamed on IS but traced to Moscow.

(Image: Getty)

The claim came after a declassified version of the report found Vladimir Putin ordered hacks “to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability”.

Damaging Democratic Party emails were stolen and passed to WikiLeaks because, the report says, “Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump”.

Donald Trump , meanwhile, was blasted by Barack Obama’s Vice President Joe Biden for denying claims Russian hackers influenced the poll.

(Image: PBS)

He told him to “grow up” and added: “The idea you may know more than the intelligence community is like saying ‘I know more about physics than my professor. I didn’t read the book, I just know I know more’.”

Mr Trump later conceded that cyber attacks had occurred but had ­“absolutely no effect” on the outcome.

Russian has denied interfering in November’s vote.