Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has denied claims that he broke the ministerial code by abandoning his red box on a train to go to the toilet.
The senior Home Office minister, who is a close ally of Rishi Sunak and sits around the cabinet table, has been accused of leaving the ministerial red box packed with confidential Government papers unguarded for a few minutes on an LNER train to his Newark constituency.
The allegations were first carried in The Sun this morning with a picture of the apparently abandoned red box taken by a fellow LNER passenger.
However, the Home Office has come out fighting denying the claims.
A spokesman said: “Mr Jenrick was working on the train throughout the journey, with his ministerial box close by at all times.”
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The spokesman added: “He sat in the seat directly to the left of this misleading photo and he left the train with his locked ministerial box.”
But the dad who took the picture has insisted that the minister made a potentially security breaching gaffe.
He told The Sun: “He was sat in first class with us.
“He walked off in the direction of the toilet and didn’t take it (the box) with him. I couldn’t believe it so we took pictures.
“He was gone for about four minutes. He came back, picked up the case and headed for the exit — we didn’t see him again.”
Jenrick is the latest minister and close ally of Sunak’s to get embroiled in a potentially career-ending row.
Already Gavin Williamson and Dominic Raab, who were instrumental in getting Sunak in as leader, have been forced to resign over bullying allegations while former chairman Nadhim Zahawi quit over failing to pay his taxes on time.
Responding to the spokesman’s claims that Jenrick did not leave the red box, the dad who sent The Sun the photo added: “He 100 percent left it — it’s an important document case, we were baffled.
“There were around ten others in the carriage with us.”
In 2013, then-Prime Minister David Cameron was also accused of leaving his red box unattended on a train on the same line.
At the time Downing Street insisted Mr Cameron’s security detail were keeping an eye on the box.
Sunak received the news of the latest gaffe on a trip to Scotland today.
