The Times was contacted by Downing Street before the Kelly Johnson story was published in the paper, which was confirmed.

Boris Johnson wanted to appoint Kelly as Foreign Office Chief of Staff before Kelly became Secretary of State, according to an article in the newspaper’s first edition on Saturday.

Johnson was still married to his ex-wife, Marina Wheeler, but the couple is known to have been in a relationship at the time.

After intervention by Johnson’s adviser, the idea was abandoned.

The Times published the story in its first issue on Saturday, but not in later editions or online.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister confirmed today that the number 10 had contacted the Times after the news was reported.

He states: We talk about them even after they were published. I don’t know the exact date. “

However, the speaker stated that the Prime Minister himself had not contacted the newspaper.

He also said he couldn’t comment on what Johnson was doing before he was elected prime minister, but Downing Street officials and Carrie Johnson’s spokeswoman denied the Times story.

He states, “I would like to discuss the denials and comments Johnson made about this and other colleagues over the weekend.”

Journalist Simon Walters, who is writing the story, told The Guardian: I went with everyone involved for two days. “No one offered me to drop the record, and Downing St. did not turn it down without a record.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman also said Dominic Cummings’ claim that the Prime Minister was trying to take over the government’s job from his wife between July 2020 and September 2020 “was not true”.