Cherie: restricting access

Carol Caplin has denied suggestions that she is set to reveal the inner secrets of life at Number 10.

Cherie Blair's lifestyle guru has severed links with her publicist and issued a statement denying reports that she planned to publish an account of her time inside Downing Street.

The statement denied reports that she was planning to "go nuclear" by revealing details of her relationship with the prime minister and his wife.

It was reported this weekend that Caplin had been pushed out of the Blairs' inner circle after her Downing Street access was removed.

According to reports she will no longer be welcome at Downing Street or Chequers but will still remain friends with Mrs Blair.

A statement released by lawyers acting on behalf of Caplin said: "She has no (nor ever has had any) intention of writing a book, newspaper article(s) or otherwise disclosing, for payment or otherwise, anything about her relationship with the prime minister and Mrs Blair."

It is thought that the prime minister was advised to sever links with Caplin following the Cheriegate affair in which her partner, a convicted conman, assisted the Blairs during the purchase of two flats in Bristol.

It was also suggested that her close links to the Mail on Sunday newspaper had put strains on the friendship.

Weekend media reports alleged that Caplin had been so enraged by her treatment that she was planning to publish a potentially explosive account of her time in the Blairs' close coterie.

Caplin has advised Mrs Blair on clothing, diet and lifestyle measures and is said to have given the prime minister a massage and sartorial advice.