Tony Blair denies warning Trump team about UK spying

Did Tony Blair warn Donald Trump’s inner circle that they were under surveillance by UK intelligence agencies during the 2016 presidential election?

USA Today columnist Michael Wolff makes the accusation in his new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Wolff alleges that former Labour leader Blair shared the “juicy rumour” with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that a number of campaign staff and “possibly even Trump himself”, had been under surveillance, The Independent reports. Blair is said to have spoken to Kushner and his aide during a White House visit last February and warned them that the British may have been monitoring telephone calls and other communications, The Sun adds.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Blair dismissed the claim in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, saying: “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.”

The former prime minister, who held the office from 1997 to 2007, told the BBC that he had met Kushner, but dismissed another accusation by Wolff that he had been “angling” for a Middle East adviser role in the White House following the US election.