Boris Johnson ‘spent long weekend in Perugia to baptise his son’

Boris Johnson spent a weekend away in Italy this month, it was claimed last night.

Perugia airport and sources told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the prime minister had been in the city from September 11 to 14. Downing Street denied the suggestion. A spokesman said: “This claim is wrong.”

The former prime minister Tony Blair is believed to have been in the city from September 8 to 11, a source told the newspaper.

Reports in the Italian media suggested that Mr Johnson may have travelled there to baptise his son Wilfred in a home owned by Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-British businessman whom Mr Johnson nominated for a peerage last month.

An airport spokesman said “Johnson and Blair were here in Perugia last week”.