Julian Assange has been in Ecuador’s embassy since 2012. Staff have allegedly made complaints about his poor hygiene JACK TAYLOR/GETTY IMAGES

Julian Assange’s poor hygiene has played a role in the latest agitations by Ecuador to extricate him from his five-year standoff in its embassy, a well-placed source has told The Times.

Staff at the embassy in Knightsbridge have made several complaints about the Wikileaks founder’s lack of cleanliness since he holed up in a back room there in 2012, the source said yesterday.

The claim came after it emerged this week that Mr Assange, 46, had been granted Ecuadorean citizenship but that an application by the country’s government to assign him diplomatic status was turned down by Britain. “It seems he doesn’t wash properly,” the source, who has visited Mr Assange at the embassy, said.

He added that the issue was a likely incentive in…