Sir Richard Dearlove has accused President Donald Trump of borrowing Russian money at the height of the financial crash

A former MI6 chief has accused President Donald Trump of borrowing Russian money at the height of the financial crash to keep his businesses afloat when other Western powers would not lend to him.

The accusation was made by Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the Secret Intelligence Service between 1999 and 2004, as questions continue to swirl about Trump's previous business dealings with Russia.

It also comes at a time when relations between the two superpowers reached a new low because of their disagreement over Syria.

Speaking yesterday, Trump said the US was 'not getting along with Russia at all.'

That rhetoric was in stark contrast to his election campaign when he boasted how he would 'get along very well with Putin' and described him as being 'very talented.'

As Trump's 'bromance' with Putin deteriorates Sir Richard, who oversaw MI6 whent he 'dodgy dossier' was released, warned any shady business deals done in 2008 could come back to haunt the billionaire.

He said: 'What lingers for Trump may be what deals - on what terms - he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him'.

In a wide-ranging interview with Prospect Magazine, Sir Richard described Trump's claims that either the US National Security Agency (NSA) or British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had bugged Trump Tower on the orders of his predecessor Barack Obama as 'deeply embarrassing.'

GCHQ rejected allegations that it spied on Trump as a 'nonsense' and 'utterly ridiculous' in a rare public rebuttal.

Discussing that Sir Richard said: 'The only possible explanation [for the accusations] is that Trump started tweeting without understanding how the NSA-GCHQ relationship actually works.'

As Trump's 'bromance' with Putin deteriorates Sir Richard warned any shady business deals done in 2008 could come back to haunt the billionaire

Since his election, Trump has been on a warpath with intelligence agencies, blaming it for the leaks about his associates' Russia ties and even comparing them to Nazi propaganda.

The president has repeatedly denied having any business dealings with Russia.

Former MI6 officer Christopher Steele claimed the Russian government holds compromising material on Trump in a secret dossier that made outlandish claims about his sex life, including allegations of an orgy in a Russian hotel.

Elsewhere in the interview, Sir Richard criticised Europe's leaders for their failure to anticipate and prepare for mass migration [particularly from Africa] despite the CIA issuing a warning in 2001.

He said: 'We shouldn't really be particularly surprised by what's happened. We just didn't prepare for it.'

He also said the rise of the far-right in Europe was more of a concern than the Islamist terrorist threat.

The spymaster described Trump's claims that either the NSA or GCHQ had bugged Trump Tower on the orders of his predecessor Barack Obama as 'deeply embarrassing'

He told the magazine: 'The Islamist terrorist threat is obviously serious but containable and ultimately manageable.

'The deterioration of European politics, with the rise of parties on the extreme right, is a far more serious problem for the UK.

'It is not in the UK's national interest to see continental Europe being split apart by the revival of nationalist movements as a post-Brexit Britain returns to a mid-Atlantic rather than continental orientation to its foreign policy.'

Sir Richard was in charge of MI6, Britain's spy agency, when the 2002 'dodgy dossier' was published.

In the dossier, the government set out its case on Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

Sir Richard ensured the material was shown directly to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair - who subsequently wrote a foreword to the so-called 'dodgy dossier' saying that Hussein's threat was beyond doubt.

Together with the earlier September Dossier, the government justified its involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.