Britain supplied Israel with plutonium during the 1960s, despite warnings from military intelligence that it could allow them to develop a nuclear bomb, it has been claimed.

BBC2's Newsnight reports that the deal was recorded in top secret documents obtained under freedom of information laws.

Along with 10 milligrammes of plutonium, the UK supplied hundreds of shipments of other materials which could have helped a nuclear weapons programme, including compounds of uranium, lithium, beryllium and tritium, as well as heavy water, according to Newsnight.

The deals took place as Israel developed its secret Dimona nuclear reactor, which is believed to have allowed the country to acquire nuclear weapons by the time of the Six Day War in 1967.

Yet Tony Benn, who was Minister of Technology at the time, told the programme he was not informed of the sales. He said he had always suspected that civil servants were doing deals behind his back, but never thought they would sell plutonium to Israel.

Mr Benn told Newsnight: "I'm not only surprised, I'm shocked. It never occurred to me they would authorise something so totally against the policy of the Government."