Dominic Raab has spoken with Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, twice recently but neither phone call is thought to have taken place in the past week

China has claimed that it secured a guarantee from Dominic Raab that the coronavirus outbreak would not be “politicised”.

The foreign secretary was also said to have “fully agreed” with Beijing that the source of the virus was a “scientific issue that requires professional and science-based assessment”.

The leading theory among the international scientific community is that the Covid-19 pandemic originated in the “wet markets” of Wuhan, a city in the Chinese province Hubei, where wild animals are sold live.

However China has sought to dismiss the claim and has been found by Britain’s intelligence agencies to be disseminating disinformation online about the origins of the pandemic, The Times understands.

The Chinese Embassy in London published a statement on its website yesterday detailing a recent