Miss Rowe says she was victim of phone hacking

Mark Lewis claims former NotW editor was helped into No10 role by his paper's 'soft' coverage of story

George Osborne is facing questions over his relationship with Andy Coulson after claims he was paying back a favour by helping the former News of the World editor get a job with the Tories.

A lawyer representing phone hacking victims says the now-defunct tabloid underplayed their coverage of sex and drugs allegations against him in October 2005.

Six years ago the paper ran on its front page hotly disputed claims from former prostitute and ex-drug user Natalie Rowe that the Chancellor took cocaine in his early 20s, before he became an MP.

Mark Lewis said Mr Coulson, editor of the paper the time the story broke in October 2005, deliberately played down the scandal in the leader column, effectively saving Mr Osborne’s political career.

Mr Lewis told Australian TV: 'The editor at the time was Andy Coulson, and I think that's worth remembering because of the future relationship that we have between the Conservative Party, the Prime Minister and Andy Coulson.'

He added: 'Andy Coulson had done George Osborner a favour; perhaps it was time for George Osborne to reciprocate and do a favour back.'

But Tory MPs rounded on Mr Lewis, calling it a 'spurious' attempt to embarrass the Chancellor with 'the wprst sort of smear'.

In the leader column the paper said Mr Osborne was 'a young man when he found himself in a murky world', and said it was up to the voters to judge at election time.

A lawyer representing Natalie Rowe claims Andy Coulson (left) was helped into his Number 10 role by George Osborne (right) because he was owed a 'favour'

Mr Lewis said: ‘The decision on which spin to give to the story by the editor of the News of the World particularly was something that determined his future in politics.

‘If it would have been written the other way it would have finished his career I’m sure.’

In July, as the phone-hacking scandal broke, Rebekah Brooks, Mr Coulson's successor at the NotW, told MPs that the chancellor had played a key role in his appointment as David Cameron's media adviser.

Mark Lewis, a solicitor who represents many of the celebrities said to have had their voicemail messages intercepted by the News of the World, was speaking after Miss Rowe repeated the cocaine allegations on Australian television.

She told ABC’s PM programme she sold her lurid story to the Sunday Mirror in 2005 and was surprised to see it appear simultaneously in the News of the World, then edited by Andy Coulson.

She and her lawyer claim the paper obtained the story by hacking her phone.

Allegations: Former escort girl Natalie Rowe claims that George Osborne used to take cocaine with her

Tory MPs condemned Mr Lewis's latest claims as a spurious attempt to smear the Chancellor.

Patrick Mercer said: ‘This is the worst sort of smear, where an account that has previously been put to bed is raised again on the back of other allegations.

‘It is a vacuous attempt to breathe life into an issue that has already died, by a lawyer who is clearly looking for financial advantage.’

Mark Field, another Tory MP, said: ‘It appears to be a rather spurious attempt to embarrass a senior minister and link the government to the phone hacking scandal using the most lurid of claims.’

Miss Rowe is believed to have spoken out abroad because of the legal difficulties in having such an interview broadcast in this country.

She explained that in 2005, a picture surfaced which showed Mr Osborne sitting alongside her when she was working as a dominatrix known as ‘Mistress Pain’.

The photograph was taken in a London flat in about 1993 or 1994, when Mr Osborne was in his early 20s. It has been claimed previously that a line of a cocaine can be seen on the table in front of them.

In her TV interview, Miss Rowe, now in her mid-40s, claimed she was ‘more than just a friend’ of Mr Osborne and insisted he had been a regular user of the Class A drug.