GCHQ is ‘furious’ about claims by Gavin Williamson, seen with wife Joanne, about Russian surveillance

The ­battle to succeed Theresa May erupted into fresh acrimony last night as top Tories traded blows over whether Gavin Williamson leaked intelligence last week to ­distract attention from an extramarital “flirtation”.

Security chiefs attacked the defence secretary as “alarmist” for claiming Russia could kill thousands of British ­citizens in a cyber-attack and accused him of using secret information provided by American spies to cover himself.

However, the allegations sparked an extraordinary row in which William­son accused his rivals for the Tory leadership of black ops to derail his campaign to succeed May as prime minister.

“This is an attempt to smear a cabinet minister in an attempt to promote the leadership campaign of someone else,” said a friend of William­son, indicating that he believed