Washington | When Alexander Downer met George Papadopoulos over drinks in a London bar he was so underwhelmed by the one-time Trump campaign adviser's claims of a Russian "dirt" file on Hillary Clinton he buried the news in a report to his bosses.

In a new and detailed account of the now-infamous London Hotel "gin & tonic" meeting in May 2016, the then-London High Commissioner is described treating the revelation from Mr Papadopoulos almost "as an afterthought".