‘British spies were first to spot Trump team’s links with Russia’:-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia
&
GCHQ ‘told US security services about meetings between Donald Trump’s team and Russia’:-
&
‘Ex-MI6 chief says Donald Trump may have borrowed money from Russia to keep his empire afloat’:-
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ex-mi6-chief-says-donald-10217616
Why did they deny it vehemently when the story first broke but now they own up to it?
It’s a general practice when dealing with classified information not to provide any information that could confirm or deny the existence of that classified information until that’s been cleared by higher-ups or lawyers, even when the press somehow got ahold of it to ask the question in the first place.
Frankly I think the common deny-first-and-then-discuss-when-cleared mentality seems very Soviet-ish, and can lead to the sort of dust-up we see around Rice, etc. The more appropriate method would be the “I can neither confirm nor deny” response, which, yes, sounds like Reaganite Plausible Deniability Newspeak, but at least it’s technically true. Neither method breeds confidence, but then that’s secrecy for you.