Tory communities secretary Eric Pickles has been accused of exaggerating the size of his Russian fanbase after an aide claimed he had stopped sending autographed pictures abroad because of the huge demand.

The bizarre row broke out after the Sun claimed Pickles’ department received “dozens of emails every month from fans in Russia” requesting signed photographs.

An aide told the newspaper: “We’ve had to stop sending autographs abroad because the sheer number of requests that come in was taking up so much time. We get hundreds of these things a year.”

Labour then submitted a freedom of information request to see exactly how many requests Pickles got for signed photographs from overseas since becoming a minister. A trawl of government servers found only two items from Russians. One from 2013 read: “I will be very happy if you can send me your autograph! I will treasure it always.” A second said: “I am your big fan from Russia. Please, send me your autograph.”

Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth said: “This is all rather embarrassing for Eric Pickles, who’s been caught telling porkie pies about his pulling prowess. The secretary of state has been in the news for all the wrong reasons: his biscuits bill, his penchant for luxury limos, and now, as his term in office comes to a welcome end, it appears he’s morphing into David Brent.

“I want to thank Eric and his team for one of the best laughs I’ve had in quite some time.”

Pickles’s team hit back, telling Buzzfeed: “There was so many they’ve been deleted to free up space... The only way of knowing that we have received more is the fact that I have seen them / read them, as have my team in the office here. There is no business need to keep them and they are just using up space on the server. We have certainly had hundreds over the four-and-a-half years since Eric has arrived in the department.”

Aides then provided the website with more recent emails from German fans, including one which requested “two handwritten pictures” and added: “I would be very pleasured if you could fulfill my wishes.”