Tony Blair has dismissed as a “complete fabrication” reports he warned Donald Trump’s advisers that UK intelligence may have spied on them during the presidential campaign.
According to a new book byMichael Wolff, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, the former prime minister met Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, last February and shared the “juicy rumour” about British espionage.
But interviewed on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Thursday morning, Blair denied the claim.
“This story is a complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. I’ve never had such conversation in the White House, outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else,” he said.
“The story is a sort of reflection on the crazy state of modern politics. Here’s a story that is literally an invention and is now half way around the world with conspiracy theories attached to it. That’s modern politics.”
Blair also denied a claim made in the book, and reported in The Times, that he asked Kushner for a job advising Trump on the Middle East. “I’ve never sought one, don’t want one,” he said.
Last year the White House was forced to apologise after it suggested GCHQ, the UK’s electronic eavesdropping agency, had spied on Trump.
The claim, first made on Fox News and repeated by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, was dismissed as ″utterly ridiculous” by the UK.
The explosive book by Wolff, who covers the inner workings of the Trump White House, has led to a row between Trump and his former key adviser Steve Bannon.
Apparently annoyed at comments made by Bannon in the book, the president said his former aide had “lost his mind” after losing his job at the White House.