Aides to Boris Johnson have insisted the former foreign secretary voted in the local elections outside his London constituency following a row over a deleted tweet.

In a post on Thursday night that was quickly deleted, the former foreign secretary and Tory leadership hopeful said: “I just voted Conservative in the local elections. Make sure you do too! You’ve got two hours left to get out and vote!”

Johnson, who lives with his partner in central London, represents the west London constituency of Uxbridge and West Ruislip. Local elections were not taking place in London on Thursday.

The website Politwoops, which records all deleted tweets from politicians, noted that Johnson had deleted the statement within a minute of it being posted.

After criticism, a source close to Johnson claimed he had voted near his second home in Thame in South Oxfordshire. He said he did not know why Johnson had deleted the tweet, and he could not explain why Johnson was registered to vote outside his Uxbridge constituency.

The Tory candidate in South Oxfordshire saw off a challenge from the Liberal Democrats.

Johnson’s deleted tweet rekindled anger over the EU referendum campaign, when he travelled around the country in a bus emblazoned with a false claim about money paid each week to the European Union.

A tweet by the writer James Felton highlighting Johnson’s deletion was shared more than 10,000 times.

Boris Johnson (former mayor and current resident of London) tweeted that he just voted in the local elections.



He deleted when he was informed that there are no local elections in London today.https://t.co/p8Urwe1mC1 pic.twitter.com/nwH3Cj8pmm — James Felton (@JimMFelton) May 2, 2019

The Labour backbencher and leading remainer David Lammy said the tweet exposed Johnson as a “compulsive liar”. He added: “You cannot trust a single word he says.”