David Lammy has been forced to deny he was carrying a gun during a chaotic taxi trip which he is alleged to have dodged a £590 fare on.
The Foreign Secretary has been plunged into a humiliating row after taxi driver Nassim Mimun, 40, claimed Mr Lammy and his wife, Nicola Green, refused to pay the fare for a 360-mile journey from Italy to France.
The Foreign Office has scrambled to extinguish the claims, insisting that Mr Lammy and his wife had paid the fare in advance, were victims and the driver has been charged with theft after driving off with their luggage.
Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, and his partner were travelling to the French Alps for a private holiday, having joined the King for a state visit to Italy in April.
Mr Mimun claims he took the couple more than 360 miles from the Italian town of Forli to the French ski resort of Flaine.
