London - Senior British government sources last night hotly denied that the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, sacked a civil servant - a "card-carrying Conservative" - so he could give the job to Ms Gaynor Regan, the woman for whom he left his wife.
Ms Anne Bullen, diary secretary to a succession of foreign secretaries, is at the centre of the latest controversy. A Mail on Sunday report said Mr Cook had tried to secure the post for Ms Regan - at a time when their relationship was still clandestine.
