Tensions between Britain and Russia exploded into angry public exchanges after Russian police detained the son of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock as part of a Kremlin-backed campaign of intimidation against British Council staff.

Stephen Kinnock, the director of the St Petersburg office of the British cultural centre, was stopped by police on suspicion of drink-driving after his car was followed home on Tuesday night. Mr Kinnock was detained in his car for an hour after pleading diplomatic immunity against a breath test, until the British Consul-General arrived to secure his release.

The encounter took place while Russian Interior Ministry police paid late-night visits to the homes of the Russian employees of the council in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, warning them against working for the organisation.

Employees were summoned earlier for interviews by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the feared KGB. James Kennedy, the director of the British Council in Russia, told The Times that FSB officers had accused the staff of working for an illegal organisation.

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“They were telling them that they are being used as agents of provocation by a foreign power,” he said.

The strong-arm tactics of the Kremlin forced the council to close both offices temporarily because most of its staff were being interrogated and “we can’t function with all this going on”.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, condemned the “very serious reports of intimidation and harassment” and summoned Yuri Fedotov, the Russian Ambassador to London, to protest.

Mr Miliband warned Russia: “Any intimidation or harassment of officials is obviously completely unacceptable.

“The only losers from any attack on the British Council are Russian citizens who want to use the British Council, one and a quarter million last year, and the reputation of the Russian Government.”

Hinting at possible British measures against Russia, Mr Miliband added: “I very much hope that there is still time for the Russian Government to find a way to maintain the very important cultural work that goes on between our two countries.”

Mr Kennedy said that the FSB was pressuring people to leave their jobs at the council, but none of the 27 staff at the two branches had done so.

He said: “We have ensured that all our staff called for interviews by the authorities are accompanied by lawyers. Our first duty is to support our staff through this difficult process.”

Nobody at the Moscow headquarters of the council had been summoned for questioning. The FSB said that it was merely explaining the attitude of the Government towards the regional offices of the British Council to “safeguard Russian citizens from being used as tools in the Britons’ provocative games”.

Interfax, a news agency in Russia, reported that a St Petersburg police source said that Mr Kinnock had been driving while drunk, a claim dismissed as “absolutely untrue” by a British embassy spokesman. He said that Mr Kinnock “may at most have committed a minor traffic offence”.

Mr Kinnock was followed by police as he drove home and was stopped by officers who accused him of violating traffic laws and driving under the influence. In accordance with diplomatic protocol, he refused to leave his car, and called the Consul-General William Elliott. Mr Kinnock was released an hour later, soon after Mr Elliott arrived.

Mr Kinnock’s father, Lord Kinnock, is chairman of the British Council.

The confrontation over the future of the council has strained relations, which are at their worst since the end of the Cold War. Last month Russia demanded that the council close its offices on January 1, claiming that they were operating illegally. The council insists that it is operating legally under a 1994 cultural agreement with Russia. But Russia claimed the deal was rendered void when negotiations on a new agreement broke down amid the row over President Putin’s refusal to submit Andrei Lugovoy for trial in London for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Mr Litvinenko, a dissident former FSB officer, died in November 2006 after he was poisoned with radioactive polonium210.

The council defied the ban and reopened both offices on the Monday after the new year holiday, prompting the Foreign Ministry to accuse Britain of “deliberate provocation”. It imposed a visa ban, threatened a tax inspection and gave warning that the entire operations of the British Council in Russia were at risk unless London backed down.

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