News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Britain's new Brexit ambassador has been dragged into the furore surrounding the Donald Trump sex tape dossier.

The President-elect has angrily dismissed the unverified claims as "fake news" and accused his opponents of a "political witch hunt".

The lurid allegations are contained in a leaked memo reportedly put together by former MI6 spy Chris Steele.

Rumours have spread that a Moscow-based British diplomat was involved in passing the memo to Trump's long-time enemy Senator John McCain.

Sir Tim Barrow has spent much of his career in Russia and was Britain's Ambassador in Moscow until 2015.

Last night Foreign Office officials told The Sun he had no knowledge and "nothing to do with" the Trump dossier.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: AFP)

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Another former Russian Ambassador, Sir Andrew Wood, admitted he did meet with Senator McCain at an international security conference in Canada last year.

He also confirmed they spoke about the possibility of Russia being in possession of 'Kompromoat' - the Russian term for compromising material - on Donald Trump.

He told The Independent: "Yes I did meet Senator McCain and his aides at the conference.

"The issue of Donald Trump and Russia was very much in the news and it was natural to talk about it.

"We spoke about the kind of activities the Russians can be engaged in.

"We also spoke about how Mr Trump may find himself in a position where there could be an attempt to blackmail him with Kompromat (the Russian term for compromising material) and claims that there were audio and video tapes in existence."

But Sir Andrew added: "I would like to stress that I did not pass on any dossier to Senator McCain or anyone else and I did not see a dossier at the time.

"I do know Christopher Steele and in my view he is very professional and thorough in what he does."

But the media firestorm has put further pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to make clear Britain played no part in the scandal.

Former spy Steele has been left out in the cold by his old bosses at MI6 amid fears Russian assassins will target him over the explosive intelligence dossier.

The dad-of-three, 52, fled his £2mil­­lion home on Wednesday, hours after being named as the man behind the 35-page document which embarrassed the US ­President-elect with claims of lewd sex acts and Russian links.

(Image: Internet unknown)

Sources have told the Daily Mirror that MI6 chiefs are distancing themselves from the furore because he has embarrassed the intelligence community.

And last night it was claimed Cambridge graduate Mr Steele could have been the victim of a sting himself.

A former British spy told us: “This dossier looks suspicious. It’s possible he has been stung himself. It has caused the biggest-ever rift between the ­American intelligence community and a future president.

"It has also caused tension between the American President and American intelligence community and Britain – so who gains from all of this? It’s obviously Russia.

“Russian intelligence is very capable of a long-term plan to plant this information, discredit the President-elect and create such rifts – this kind of Soviet-style disruption is very typical.

“And if it was planned from the start then it has worked quite brilliantly.

(Image: AFP)

“We in the West agonise and debate publicly over the pros and cons of sending in a drone to assassinate British jihadis in Syria.

"But Russia’s President thinks nothing of sending people to commit murder on London’s streets.

"We cannot underestimate how ­ruthless Russia is capable of being.

“If this disrupts Western ­democracy and paralyses the ability for ­intelligence agencies to work against threats, then Vladimir Putin may be celebrating his biggest victory.

“In Washington the intelligence community is so demoralised it now fears raising the spectre of threats, and this could affect national security. That too is very damaging for Britain.”

Downing Street refused to say if Mr Steele was being helped by official agencies but there is a “standard process” to support people who held ­sensitive posts.

But the Mirror­ ­understands that with MI6 distancing itself, any protection for Mr Steele is now a police matter.

On Wednesday Trump accused US intelligence agencies of releasing the report, which made ­unverified allegations that Russia had compromising information on him.

The claims of alleged sexual ­misbehaviour and indiscretions could mean that he is unable to operate as ­President as he is vulnerable to blackmail.

(Image: TASS via Getty Images)

Trump claimed political opponents commissioned the document for last year’s election campaign.

During a “car crash” press conference he tore into journalists who reported it, branding CNN “fake news”.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has told Trump that the US ­agencies had “not made any judgment that the information in this ­document is reliable”.

Mr Steele, who is believed to still be in Britain, is one of two directors of Orbis Business Intelligence, according to Companies House.

(Image: REUTERS)

He joined MI6 after graduating from Cambridge, where he studied at Girton College and became president of the Cambridge Union debating society.

As a student, he was ­photographed with guests radio DJ Paul Gambaccini, now 67, and TV presenter Chris Searle, 73, who had been invited to a debate.

University friend Lance Forman, 54, told the Mirror: “Chris was pretty amiable. But I remember he did try to stitch me up in a student political battle 30 years ago. Student politics could be vicious at that time but that’s water under the bridge now.”

Mr Steele recently got married for the second time after losing first wife Laura to illness in 2010.

Laura’s dad David Hunt, 78, said yesterday: “We’ve just heard the news this morning and we are just a little concerned about it. We last spoke to him two weeks ago at our Christmas get-together. He was fine.”

(Image: TIM ANDERSON)

Mr Steele first married in July 1990 in Lambourn, Berkshire, where friends recalled him dancing “like a cossack”.

Soon afterwards he was sent to Moscow on a diplomatic posting, while Laura began working for British Airways.

They had three children – Matthew, Henry and Georgina – between 1996 and 2000. Mr Steele was then moved to Paris but they returned home to Surrey when Laura became ill.

His company Orbis was founded in 2009 and is based at Grosvenor Gardens, in Belgravia, Central London. The area is at the heart of the British ­intelligence com­­munity and close to the US embassy.

(Image: TIM ANDERSON)

It says it can “provide strategic advice, mount ­intelligence-gathering operations and conduct complex, often cross-border investigations”.

Experts said the dossier on Trump, apparently commissioned by political opponents, could have taken three or four months to compile and would cost £100,000.

The file listed sources as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure and a former top-level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin”.

Fellow Orbis director, former Foreign Office official Christopher Burrows, 58, refused to “confirm or deny” the firm produced the Trump report.

Marina Litvinenko, the widow of murdered former spy and Putin critic ­Alexander Litvinenko, said Mr Steele could be in danger for collecting such information.

She told the BBC: “I believe it is very dangerous, particularly after the death of my husband, because when you approach very specific information – particularly when this information is very close to very powerful people – you just easily might be killed.”

(Image: Reuters)

Mr Steele’s house, in Surrey, was empty yesterday. Neighbour Mike Hopper said Steele had lived there with his family for about 18 months.

Mr Hopper, who is caring for the family’s three cats, said Mr Steele seemed “normal” when he left on Wednesday, adding: “He did not say where he was going or when he was coming back.”

Asked if the Government is helping Mr Steele, No10 said only: “I think there is a standard process that is followed with regard to the naming of people that have worked in certain roles in the Civil Service, be they serving or former roles.”

Meanwhile, Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied claims that the Kremlin had compromising information about Trump and insisted: “Moscow hopes that our presidents will get along well."