It comes after senior Trump officials voiced sharp criticism of British authorities and repeated misinformation on a range of fronts including abortion and digital regulation, and allied with European far-right movements in attacks on hate speech and immigration policies.

The grants appear to be separate from other grants of $12m which the US state department is planning to allocate to organisations in the UK founded by the prominent Conservatives Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young.

Those intended grants, revealed in US government documents leaked to the Guardian, are part of a package of support for European groups viewed favourably by the Trump administration.