Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi’s allies have last night refuted allegations that she embarked on foreign trips at taxpayers’ expense and misused her position as the Conservative Party Chairman.

Reports yesterday highlighted the fact that Lady Warsi had 17 foreign visits in the past two years, though her main role was to foster relations with Tories in Britain.

But the Baroness’ camp asserted that the visits – which included Pakistan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia – were explicitly authorised by David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Sources claimed they included sensitive negotiations to find a “second route” out of Afghanistan after the Pakistanis vetoed plans to let the UK move its heavy military equipment through the country. Lady Warsi, they said, had also been tasked to maintain channels of communication with Islamabad at a time of heightened tensions with the West.

Senior government sources informed the trips by the first lady Muslim cabinet minister of Britain were publicised because of security concerns and because some are diplomatically and politically sensitive.

“The idea that somehow Warsi has been travelling the world for fun at the taxpayer expense is simply rubbish”, a senior Conservative said, adding, “Part of her job when appointed was to be a Government envoy to that part of the world. Everything is signed off by William and the PM, and to suggest otherwise is just nonsense.”

A senior businessman from the Government’s Asia Task Force, who was also with Lady Warsi in Indonesia last week on a trade visit, told the Independent, “I was impressed by her. She commanded a respect which I had not expected. We don’t have enough at a governmental level, building relationships in that part of world. While I’ve no idea about the allegations against her, I thought she was a highly effective advocate of UK Plc.”

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