Boris Johnson has insisted claims that Theresa May restricted his access to sensitive intelligence information when he was foreign secretary are 'not true'.

The outgoing Prime Minister allegedly wanted to avoid Mr Johnson being shown a category of sensitive secret intelligence after he was appointed to the Cabinet role in July 2016.

The move was said to have worried those within the intelligence services at MI6 because Mr Johnson's role involved authorising sensitive operations.

But Mr Johnson dismissed the claims today as he said: 'I am sure that the Prime Minister would not comment on intelligence matters either so I am extremely dubious about the provenance of this story.

'It's not true and I don't comment on intelligence matters.'

Downing Street would not be drawn on the claims as a spokeswoman said: 'We don't comment on intelligence matters.'

However, Number 10 did say Mrs May had trusted Mr Johnson when he was foreign secretary.

The spokeswoman said: 'Yes. It's a matter of fact that it was the PM's own decision to appoint Boris Johnson as foreign secretary in full knowledge of all responsibilities that that job involves.'

Mr Johnson, pictured today at a Tory leadership hustings event in Darlington, has dismissed claims he had information withheld from him when he was foreign secretary

The Tory favourite said the claims were 'not true' while Downing Street said it did not comment on intelligence matters

Mr Johnson was taken around the MI6 building in London three months after his appointment

Sources close to 55-year-old Mr Johnson insisted to BBC News that there was no row about access denial and he saw everything he had to for his role.

Mr Johnson first visited MI6's headquarters in London as foreign secretary three months after his appointment and was shown around by its chief Alex Younger.

Mr Younger said at the time that the politician was shown 'first-hand the kind of work that MI6 does', while Mr Johnson spoke of 'how vital the work they do is'.

But sources said Downing Street had been trying to clamp down on Mr Johnson's access, which one individual familiar with events described as 'control freakery'.

Mr Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street in 2016

Others told the BBC it was a 'combination of everyone's faults', thanks to fears over Mr Johnson's lack of discipline and enmity between him and Mrs May.

But sources at Downing Street said it took all decisions on access properly and officials were confident Mr Johnson could 'see what he needed to see'.

Today's report followed claims in November 2017 that British spies were 'wary' of sharing information with Mr Johnson because they did not trust him.

Left-wing political journal the New Statesman reported at the time that a string of diplomats had little confidence in the foreign secretary's style.

Mr Johnson was shown around MI6's headquarters in London by its chief Alex Younger (pictured at the University of St Andrews last December)

Mr Hunt, pictured today at the Tory leadership hustings in Darlington, refused to be drawn on the row over whether his predecessor at the Foreign Office was given full access to sensitive information

Mrs May, pictured today in Poznan in Poland at a European summit, is yet to directly address the claims

It came a month after he was criticised for saying the former ISIS stronghold of Sirte in Libya could be 'the next Dubai' once they 'clear the dead bodies away'.

Mr Johnson is the favourite in the race to replace Mrs May as leader of the Conservative Party with his challenger Jeremy Hunt a self-described underdog.

Mr Hunt, the current Foreign Secretary, refused to be drawn on the reports relating to whether his predecessor had full access to sensitive information.

He said today: 'We do have a rule that we never comment on intelligence matters and that would include comments about my predecessor and comments about myself.

'We have the finest intelligence services in the world in this country - that does depend on some discretion by the Foreign Secretary so I'm not going to breach that now.'

Voting will open up tomorrow to the Conservative Party's 160,000 members to vote to choose the winner of the race for Number 10.

Both contenders have said they are prepared to walk away from the EU without a deal if they cannot secure a new agreement on the terms of Britain's withdrawal.