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.