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Respected news magazine Focus reports in its latest issue that 18 months ago she met the heads of MI5, MI6 and the director of GCHQ, the agency which was discovered to have conducted covert surveillance on Germany. Her contacts with the British have rankled German spooks. One anonymous official said to the magazine: "In 12 years she has not once attended one of the weekly security briefings for her government. "Why does she travel to England then? Does she not trust her own people anymore?"

GETTY Angela Merkel has reportedly turned to British intelligence for advice on how to combat terror

Does she not trust her own people anymore? German intelligence source

According to Focus, David Cameron arranged for her to meet intelligence chiefs at Chequers in October 2015. Present were Andrew Parker of MI5, Alex Younger, chief of the global foreign intelligence service MI6 and GCHQ's Robert Hannigan. The German authorities officially "knew nothing" of the meeting at which Focus says Mrs Merkel handed the British a report from her own BND foreign intelligence agency a report about President Putin and the situation in Crimea by way of thanks for their briefing.

The many faces of Angela Merkel Wed, May 17, 2017 German Chancellor, Angela Merkel through the years Play slideshow 1 of 16

Relations between British and German spymasters have hit rock bottom in recent months because London believes its counterparts in Berlin cannot be trusted to keep secrets. At a time of escalating Islamic terror threats across Europe the German BND is being frozen out by GCHQ and the NSA in America. Both London and Washington believe insecure German data servers have led to the leaking of tens of thousands of classified documents to the Wikileaks whistleblower platform.

GETTY Relations between British and German security services are at rock bottom due to a lack of trust