Public relations firm Edelman says it's suspending its consulting arrangement with former B.C. premier and former high commissioner to the U.K. Gordon Campbell pending a British police investigation.

The firm says it hired Campbell on a retainer as a part-time consultant in July 2018.

"In light of the recent allegations, Edelman and Mr. Campbell have mutually decided to suspend their consulting arrangement until the police investigation in the U.K. is complete," Edelman said in a written statement.

Campbell is the subject of a sexual assault investigation related to his time as Canada's senior diplomat in the U.K., where he was high commissioner from 2011 to 2016, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The CBC has not been able to independently verify details reported in the British newspaper.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper talks with Gordon Campbell, then Canada's high commissioner to the United Kingdom, during a business roundtable in London in 2013. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Scotland Yard will only confirm that police in Westminster — in central London — are investigating an allegation of sexual assault that occurred in January 2013.

A spokesperson with the Metropolitan Police Service said in an email that a 54-year-old woman contacted police on Jan. 3, 2019, and alleged she had been sexually assaulted at an address in Grosvenor Square.

No arrests have been made and enquiries are ongoing, the spokesperson said.

The newspaper quotes a spokesperson for Campbell saying there was an investigation at the time by the government of Canada and the complaint was found to be without merit.