Friends of Bernard Jenkin MP, pictured, believe he is being targeted by a naked 'smear campaign'

Allies of George Osborne have been accused of smearing a leading Eurosceptic MP – by reminding voters that he is a nudist.

The Chancellor’s camp were blamed for ‘gratuitously dredging up’ the hippy-style habits of Bernard Jenkin, a leading light in the Vote Leave campaign group.

The row broke after Conservative peer Danny Finkelstein, a friend of Mr Osborne, revealed last week how he had once advised a leading Tory frontbencher not to reveal he was a nudist, saying: ‘We all have a problem with nudity.’

However, in his column in The Times, he said he had told the same MP that ‘he was right to own up’ to smoking cannabis as that would make him ‘look normal’.

Although Lord Finkelstein did not name the Tory involved, he confirmed yesterday that he was referring to Mr Jenkin who, along with six other Conservative frontbenchers, admitted to The Mail on Sunday in October 2000 that they had used the drug.

A friend of Mr Jenkin said last night: ‘What earthly reason has Finkelstein, a well-known mate of the Chancellor, got to dredge up all that stuff about Bernard’s nudism now?

‘It’s clearly an attempt to sway voters undecided on Europe that one of the leading anti-EU gang is a bit odd and loves walking around without any clothes on. It’s pathetic.’

But Lord Finkelstein, who was a key aide to the then Tory leader William Hague in 2000, last night dismissed as ‘ridiculous’ the idea that he was trying to smear Mr Jenkin. He said: ‘Anybody who thinks my anonymous reference to Bernard Jenkin is going to settle the EU referendum needs to think more carefully about their political strategy.

‘I am very fond of Bernard and the thought [of smearing him] couldn’t have been further from my mind.’

In his column, Lord Finkelstein rebuked so-called ‘naked rambler’ Stephen Gough for repeatedly breaking the law by insisting on stripping off in public.

Lord Finkeltein, pictured, dismissed suggestions that he was trying to smear Mr Jenkin in his column

Finkelstein is a 'well known mate' of Chancellor George Osborne who is trying to undermine the out campaign

But he also recalled how he had been with a Shadow Cabinet Member ‘a few years ago’ when the MP had admitted to a Sunday newspaper he had used cannabis at university.

Lord Finkelstein said he had consoled the MP, saying: ‘He was right to own up to cannabis use. It would make him look normal and few would mind.’

But the frontbencher then ‘made a surprising revelation. He was a nudist. Strictly at home or on designated land, of course. He enjoyed it.

‘Well, this was a different matter altogether. I firmly advised him that were he ever to be asked about this by a newspaper reporter, he should try to avoid giving an answer. Revelation would be politically highly undesirable.’