Andrea Leadsom, a candidate to be Britain's next prime minister, is facing fresh allegations that she exaggerated her role working in financial services after putting that experience at the centre of her campaign to be the next leader.
Leadsom said she had given a full account of her past jobs as some of her career credentials were called into doubt by former colleagues.
After a ballot of MPs of the governing Conservative party on Thursday, Leadsom and Interior Minister Theresa May emerged as the two candidates to be prime minister. The result of the contest is expected to be decided by grass roots members by September 9.
Before entering parliament in 2010 she spent a decade working at Barclays Bank and Invesco Perpetual, one of the country's biggest retail fund managers.
Leadsom has often referred to her 25 years of experience in finance, recounting how she spent the weekend helping Eddie George, the late governor of the Bank of England, calming the fears of bankers after the merchant bank Barings collapsed.
However, Peter Norris, the chief executive of Barings at the time, said he had "absolutely no recollection of her at all" in the failed attempt to rescue the bank, one of the biggest financial crises in modern British history.
In a blog in 2009, Leadsom wrote that over the weekend that Barings collapsed she was "in the thick of it" as the Bank of England governor attempted to reassure markets and prevent a run on the banks.
Responding to allegations she had exaggerated her experience working in finance, Leadsom told the BBC on Thursday that the criticism was "ridiculous" and her experience is "all absolutely true".
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Leadsom spoke about her past "running enormous teams, small teams," running a start-up business and being part of a huge bank.
But Reuters spoke to five former Invesco colleagues, including four in senior management positions, who said Leadsom did not have a prominent role or manage client money.
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