Comic Relief has been accused of lying about David Lammy, after emails were published appearing to show they had wrongly claimed he had ignored requests to discuss charity projects.
Comic Relief said in a statement on Thursday that it had approached the high-profile backbench MP to participate but he had “not responded”.
Lammy said this was “simply not true” as he had held two meetings with the organisation.
On Friday morning Jack McKenna, a former adviser to Lammy, released an email exchange in which a Comic Relief chief executive Liz Warner said it had been “good to meet” Lammy.
It comes after the Labour MP accused Strictly Come Dancing star Stacey Dooley of perpetuating “tired and unhelpful stereotypes” after she travelled to Uganda for a documentary ahead of Red Nose Day.
McKenna, who now works for Jeremy Corbyn, tweeted in response: “This is a lie. You said that David Lammy did not respond to you. That is not true. Delete your tweet and apologise.
“I worked for David at the time. Our office set up a meeting between David and your CEO Liz Warner in Parliament in October 2017. I attended the meeting.”
Comic Relief has been contacted for a comment.
On Wednesday, Dooley shared pictures on her social media from Uganda, with one snap showing her posing with a young child.
Lammy, who has been the MP for Tottenham since 2010, sparked the row when he said on Twitter on Wednesday that the 31-year-old investigative reporter was reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes about Africa.
Lammy said his issue was not “personal” with Dooley and he does not question her “good motives”.
Instead, he said he had a problem with “British celebrities” being flown out to Africa by Comic Relief to make films that send “a distorted image” of the continent and perpetuate “an old idea from the colonial era”.
The charity stands by its decision to work with Dooley and thanked her for helping people “working with or supported by Comic Relief projects tell their own stories in their own words”.