Lance Price worked for Tony Blair during his first term as PM

A former spin doctor for Tony Blair has admitted that he was paid an undisclosed sum to write a biography of Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister.

Lance Price, a former BBC journalist who worked for Mr Blair during his first term, publicised The Modi Effect saying that of “all the elections I have ever reported or taken part in, nothing compares to Narendra Modi’s”.

In fact, Price has admitted, he had never heard of Mr Modi, who was elected in May last year, until he was approached by one of the Indian prime minister’s associates. Price denied he was “a pen for hire” but conceded that he had received financial support.

“They paid for not all but some of the flights backwards and forwards