Carrie Johnson has accused Lord Ashcroft of peddling “regurgitated lies” about her as the peer prepares to publish a new unauthorised biography.

       Lord Ashcroft’s book, which is currently being serialised in a Sunday newspaper, includes claims the Prime Minister’s wife left her role at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) amid a row over expenses.

       Mrs Johnson, who was the Conservative Party’s director of communications from June 2017 before leaving the following year, is alleged by sources quoted in the book to have booked minicabs under the names of junior staff for use in her private time.

       She is claimed to have made at least 40 “work or leisure trips abroad and in Britain” during the last decade. Lord Ashcroft wrote that her social media accounts, which featured a number of pictures of her on holiday, were also looked at by party officials.

       But a spokesman for Ms Johnson told the Mail on Sunday: “These regurgitated lies regarding Mrs Johnson’s employment record are spiteful and damaging.

       “Carrie left her role to pursue her passion in ocean conservation and later in animal welfare.”

       In 2019, the claims were at the centre of a reported row between Boris Johnson and Lynton Crosby after they appeared in a number of newspapers.

       Mr Crosby, the political strategist who orchestrated a number of Conservative general election campaigns while Mrs Johnson was working at CCHQ, denied allegations that he was behind the briefings.

       The book also includes a previously unpublished photograph showing the then-Ms Symonds, who was 24, glancing sideways at Mr Johnson while campaigning for his re-election as mayor of London in 2012.

       Downing Street has not said whether Mrs Johnson has received a letter from Scotland Yard as part of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into “partygate”. On Friday, it was confirmed that the Prime Minister had been contacted by police.