MINISTERIAL aide Andrew Lewer has been sacked after a “canary trap” letter warning Conservative MPs not to leak information to the press was itself leaked.

He was dismissed as a parliamentary private secretary to Policing Minister Kit Malthouse after the probe, which was led by chief whip Mark Spencer, Whitehall sources confirmed yesterday.

In an effort to identify suspected leakers within the government, the letter was understood to have contained distinct but minor differences in versions sent to each recipient.

An image of one ended up on the Guido Fawkes political website on Thursday, which led to the Northampton South MP’s dismissal.

Mr Lewer has denied being behind the leak.

The letter warned that the Prime Minister’s foreword to the ministerial code “strictly prohibits” leaking, adding: “Please keep this in the forefront of your mind; the position you hold is a privilege and not a right.”

The government has been trying to clamp down on leaks to the press after the so-called “Chatty Rat” scandal in which newspapers learned of the second national lockdown for England ahead of Boris Johnson’s formal announcement.