Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, stoked fresh controversy on Thursday when it emerged that the far-right politician spent much of his second day in office fielding questions from the police about bribery allegations.

An Israeli police spokesman said: “Avigdor Lieberman was questioned under caution by police today for 7½ hours on suspicion of carrying out the following: bribery, money laundering and breach of trust.”