Britain was aware the FBI was covertly approaching one of Donald Trump’s campaign advisers in London before the 2016 US election, The New York Times has reported.

UK intelligence officials were notified about an operation that saw two figures acting for the FBI sussing out George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy aide, according to the paper.

It followed the FBI opening an investigation into Trump campaign links to the Kremlin after Mr Papadopoulos mentioning Russia and Hillary Clinton emails to an Australian diplomat.

Approached for a response by this newspaper about Britain’s reported awareness of the operation, neither the UK Foreign Office nor the FBI commented.

The report risks further inflaming tensions between Mr Trump, who has publicly accused the UK of spying on his election campaign, and British intelligence figures.