WEST Dorset MP Oliver Letwin has denied claims that as Cabinet Office minister he intended to pledge £20m to the now closed-down Kids Company charity.

The charity's founder Camila Batmanghelidjh claimed in a national newspaper that Mr Letwin had offered to 'find' £20m in funding for the children's charity.

The organisation was forced to close because of a lack of money earlier this month.

It had been given a £3m grant by the government just days before.

Miss Batmanghelidjh told the Independent newspaper said: “He (Oliver Letwin,) actually said it was ‘enough’ us being so hand-to-mouth, and that we were one of the best programmes in relation to dealing with this very difficult group of children and young people.

“Then he said, ‘What you really need is £20m’, and he said he was going to find it.

"Actually, I was shocked. The £20m didn’t come out of my mouth, it came out of his.”

Shortly after the meeting last July, Miss Batmanghelidjh said she sent a letter to Mr Letwin in which she mentioned his comments regarding the £20m funding.

She added: “If I had got it wrong, the private secretary for Oliver should have written back to me and said that ‘we never discussed £20m, you’ve got this wrong.’

“If I had come up with something that hadn’t been discussed, then my letter would have come across as outrageous.”

Mr Letwin said: "We made considerable efforts to find ways of enabling Kids Company to bring its activities within existing government programmes.

"We hoped that it could benefit from the funding streams associated with those programmes.

"This is of course quite different from promises of large additional unconditional funding, which were never made.

"Unfortunately, despite our efforts, it did not prove possible to find a way to bring Kids Company's activities within existing government programmes."