Senior members of Boris Johnson’s Number 10 team want to legalise cannabis, BuzzFeed News can reveal, as a cross-party group of MPs predicted that the UK will allow recreational use of the drug within 5 to 10 years.

The prime minister is hiring Blair Gibbs, a long-term advocate of reforming cannabis laws, as one of his policy advisers in Downing Street.

Gibbs, who was Johnson's policing aide when he was mayor of London, is leaving his current job as the policy lead at the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis campaign group to take up the key role in Number 10. A source close to Gibbs confirmed he was making the move.

The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis is the UK industry body for businesses that produce medicinal cannabis and cannabidiol products.

Johnson distanced himself from the views of his top team on Wednesday night, following the BuzzFeed News story. A government spokesperson said: "These are comments made by individuals before they joined government and do not reflect government policy."