What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Labour approached Nick Robinson to be the party's chief spin doctor - and could have given him a job in Number 10, the BBC political editor has claimed.

The revelation has come in a set of post-election diaries by the Corporation veteran as he looks back on his battle with lung cancer on the eve of the election.

The 51-year-old had a tumour removed just weeks before polling day, and with typical boundless energy was back in the hot seat with a strained voice on May 7.

Now he has written for the first time about the apparent approach by the Labour party.

Mr Robinson said the call came on July 9 last year while he was in his office in Millbank, a few doors down from Westminster.

He said he had to resist the urge to 'roar with laughter' before politely declining the invitation.

(Image: PA)

In the diaries, published in The Mail on Sunday , he wrote: "On a rather bad mobile line I was sure, at first, that I was being asked if I could recommend anyone to take charge of Ed Miliband’s presentational difficulties.

"I began to rack my brains until it began to dawn on me that I had misheard. I was being asked whether I would consider taking on the job of spin doctor, with a role at No 10 to follow, naturally. That’s right – me.

For the rest of the conversation I had to resist the urge to roar with laughter and inquire whether the caller had got the wrong number."

Nick Robinson joined the BBC in 1986 as a trainee and working on the children's news show Newsround.

He worked his way up through the Corporation and left to ITN, before returning to replace Andrew Marr as political editor in 2005.