Donald Trump’s suggestion that Britain invented Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election has been branded “completely false” by the UK government.

The US president shared a tweet by William Craddick, the founder of right-wing conspiracy theory news outlet Disobedience Media, on Sunday evening.

“Russiagate was designed in part to help the UK counter Russian influence by baiting the United States into taking a hard line against them,” Mr Craddick wrote. “Leaves us all with a more dangerous world as a consequence. Just another episode of the great game.”

It is not clear what “Russian influence” in Britain Mr Craddick was referring to, but “great game” is likely a reference to a long-running political and diplomatic confrontation between Russia and Britain in the 19th century.

Mr Trump regularly retweets messages – as he did here – that he agrees with.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Independent: “This claim is completely false.”

Mr Trump’s endorsement of the explosive claim Britain was involved in a conspiracy to create “Russiagate” – a term commonly understood to refer to Russia’s meddling in the presidential election – risks further undermining relations between the White House and the UK government.

Late last week, he launched an extraordinary attack against Theresa May over her Brexit negotiation strategy, claiming she “didn’t listen” to his advice over the issue.

Sir Nicholas Soames, Conservative MP and privy councillor, told The Independent that Mr Trump’s peddling of the conspiracy theory was “foolish” and “ludicrous”.

“The trouble is he allows himself to be subject to these great flights of fancy, which unfortunately there are too many people who take seriously,” said Mr Soames, who is the grandson of Winston Churchill.

He added: “He pretty much takes up every conspiracy theory there is, it’s just ludicrous. I don’t think anyone who knows anything about it would take it seriously.”

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Mr Trump’s latest insinuation of Russian innocence over the presidential election will likely further exasperate the US intelligence community, which has concluded the Kremlin interfered to help Mr Trump and damage his rival Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.