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Claims that MI6 were forced to withdraw spies due to the Edward Snowden files have been dismissed as “nonsense”.

UK security services claimed agents were put in danger after Russia and China cracked the top-secret documents stolen by the US whistleblower.

A Downing Street source said: “It has meant agents have had to be moved and that knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information.”

Former GCHQ director Sir David Omand said it was a “huge strategic setback” for the West.

He said: “I am not at all surprised that people are being pulled back and operations where people are exposed are having to be shut down, at least for the moment.”

The former head of the Navy Admiral Lord West said Snowden was a “traitor” whose actions hade made “every single one of us less safe”.

But Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: “The argument that MI6 officers are at danger of being killed by the Russians or Chinese is a nonsense.

"Rule no.1 in both the CIA and MI6 is that identities are never, ever written down - neither their names or a description that would allow them to be identified.”

Critics also questioned the timing of the story which emerged as the Government prepared to bring in its “Snoopers’ Charter” allowing security services greater access to texts, email and online messages.

(Image: PA)

Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty, said: “Last week, David Anderson’s thoughtful report called for urgent reform of snooping laws - that would not have been possible without Snowden’s revelations.

“Days later, an ‘unnamed Home Office source’ is accusing him of having blood on his hands.

"The timing of this exclusive story from the securocrats seems extremely convenient.”