How No 10 warned off the Telegraph The comments were made less than 24 hours after Joanna Hindley, an adviser to the Culture Secretary, telephoned one of the reporters investigating Mrs Miller's expense claims to "flag up" the minister's role in implementing new press rules. Miss Hindley then telephoned the head of public affairs at Telegraph Media Group who has no role in editorial decisions at the newspaper. Downing Street insisted today that Mr Oliver and Miss Hindley were raising "legitimate concerns" about the investigation, despite the references to the Leveson Inquiry. Labour said it called into question the "integrity and professionalism" of Mr Oliver and Ms Hindley. Simon Danczuk, a Labour MP, said: "If Craig Oliver threatened the Telegraph without David Cameron's authority, that looks like an open-and-shut breach of the special advisers" code. And the same applies to Maria Miller and her special adviser Joanna Hindley. If these allegations are true then one of them has broken the rules. Reporters first approached the Culture Secretary's office last Thursday to ask for comment on the results of an investigation which found she claimed more than £90,000 in expenses on a London home where her parents lived. The arrangement appeared to breach rules which ban MPs from claiming expenses for a property occupied by their parents. In a telephone conversation with a reporter on Thursday, Miss Hindley pointed out that Mr Gallagher was involved in meetings with the Prime Minister and Mrs Miller over implementing the Leveson recommendations. She said: "Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors" meetings around Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to kind of flag up that connection for you to think about. The following day, Mr Oliver contacted Mr Gallagher, indicating that any article may be poorly timed as "she [Maria Miller] is looking at Leveson at the moment." He warned she was ready to complain to the Press Complaints Commission. The Daily Telegraph published the story on Tuesday, leading to government sources suggesting there was a link between the story and Mrs Miller's announcement to allow same-sex marriage. This was untrue as Mrs Miller had been contacted before the Government had decided to make the announcement. On Wednesday, the row over the investigation and the references made by senior government figures about the Leveson Report in their responses to questions over Mrs Miller's expense claims dominated Downing Street briefings. In the morning, the Prime Minister's official spokesman denied that Miss Hindley had tried to exert improper influence on the Telegraph. He said: "My understanding is that she was raising legitimate concerns about the way in which the investigation has been handled, which is perfectly reasonable." Later in the day, the explanation had changed. The spokesman said aides had mentioned media policy to demonstrate the minister's heavy workload. Asked if the aides had mentioned Leveson to try to stop the story being published, he said: "You are making a link, we are not ... these are separate things." The comments prompted Hacked Off, the campaign which is backing state regulation of the press, to call for Mrs Miller to stand back from any further talks on press regulation. On Wednesday the media commentator Roy Greenslade said Mrs Miller should step away from implementing the Leveson Report. He said: "I think Miller's aides - and Miller - have questions to answer. The mention of Leveson, and the call to the Telegraph's 'head of public affairs," were sinister moves that, on the face of it, amounted pressure to prevent publication."