Boris Johnson’s senior ministers have attempted to minimise the allegations that he groped a journalist’s inner thigh at a dinner in 1999 as the party tried to get its conference back on to the subject of Brexit and domestic policy.

Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary and former minister for women, gave her wholehearted backing to the prime minister, saying: there is “no truth in these allegations”, while housing minister, Esther McVey, suggested journalists needed to go back and check it really happened.