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The White House has been delivered a brutal slapdown by the British government for repeating a claim that GCHQ spied on Donald Trump.

US officials face humiliation hours after the British spy agency issued a rare statement branding the claims "utterly ridiculous nonsense".

White House press secretary Sean Spicer sparked the row last night by quoting a Fox News pundit who claimed GCHQ "wiretapped" the Republican billionaire for Barack Obama to avoid "American fingerprints".

Today he was branded "stupid" and "desperate" by Britain's former foreign secretary and intelligence committee chief Malcolm Rifkind.

As the row unfolded, Mr Spicer is understood to have spoken directly to Britain's ambassador to the US, Sir Kim Darroch.

Sources told the Sun and Telegraph US officials had issued a "grovelling" apology to the PM's National Security Adviser Sir Mark Lyall Grant.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said today: "We have made clear to the (US) administration that these claims are ridiculous and that they should be ignored and we have received assurances that these allegations won't be repeated."

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Asked if the allegations posed problems for the special UK-US relationship, he replied: "We have a close, special relationship with the White House and that allows us to raise concerns as and when they arise as was true in this case."

He added: "We have received assurances that these allegations won't be repeated and this shows the administration doesn't give the allegations any credence."

Trump has asked Congress to investigate his apparently evidence-free claims that his predecessor tapped his phones in New York's Trump Tower.

Then, last night, White House press secretary Sean Spicer implicated Britain by quoting Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano at an official briefing.

Quoting Napolitano, he said: "[Obama] didn’t use the NSA. He didn’t use the CIA. He didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use Department of Justice.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS)

"He used GCHQ. What is that? It’s the initials for the British spying agency.

"They showed simply by having two saying to them the President needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trump’s conversations involving President-elect Trump, he’s able to get and there is no American fingerprints on this."

A spokesman for GCHQ said: "Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president elect are nonsense.

"They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.''

Malcolm Rifkind, former foreign secretary and former chairman of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, branded Spicer "stupid and desperate".

He told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "It was more than strange, it was always a fantasy and it was quite bizarre.

"I assume this is more cock-up than conspiracy.

"He [Spicer] is desperate to try and give some credibility to the original allegation of President Obama having been involved in wire-tapping Trump’s conversations.

"That’s just foolish and very very dangerous stuff, and President Trump better get a grip - not only on his own press officer, but on the kind of encouragement being given from the White House that makes a press officer make these stupid remarks in the first place.

"It’s dangerous because we’re not talking about a candidate for the presidency, that would be bad enough. We’re talking about the President of the United States. You cannot have his official spokesman making allegations against a fellow Nato government."

He added: "Spicer the press officer never had the remotest evidence. He was relying as he himself said on a Fox News report.

"You don’t just quote from a Fox News report if you’re the President’s official spokesman unless you’ve taken the trouble to find out whether that report is justified."

GCHQ - the Government Communications Headquarters - works alongside MI5 and MI6 and focuses on defending the country against cyber threats. It usually refuses to respond on intelligence matters.

(Image: Getty) (Image: PA)

When US whistleblower Edward Snowden - a former NSA analyst - claimed the agency had the power to turn people's mobile phones off and on and switch on the handset microphone to listen to what is happening around them, GCHQ kept quiet.

In BBC Panorama interview two years ago, Snowdon said that GCHQ allows agents to track a subject's movements with greater than usual accuracy.

A spokeswoman said at the time: "It is long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters."

(Image: Getty Images North America)

Similarly, when reports surfaced in 2015 suggesting that the spy agency had stolen confidential codes from a Dutch Sim card manufacturer to hack into mobile phones around the world, GCHQ declined to respond.

Yet when a Banksy artwork of 1950s-style agents using devices to tap into conversations at a telephone box appeared in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, just a few miles from GCHQ, the organisation admitted it was the "the first time we have ever been asked to comment on art".

A spokesman said: "Although we are not qualified critics, we are as intrigued as the rest of the residents of Cheltenham about the appearance of the mysterious artwork."