Jennifer Arcuri used the then London mayor as her reference for the top job at Tech City

Boris Johnson wrote a letter recommending his friend Jennifer Arcuri for a high-flying job as the head of a government quango reporting directly to Downing Street, according to emails passed to The Sunday Times.

The emails show that Arcuri listed the then London mayor as her reference when she was applying for the £100,000-a-year job as chief executive of the technology quango Tech City, for which she was woefully underqualified.

Arcuri was a 27-year-old student when Johnson is said to have endorsed her for the post, which was intended for “proven business leaders”. Arcuri later wrote of the episode: “I still have the letter of rec from Boris. Hahaha. To think that we asked him to write us a recommendation for the CEO of Tech