Jo Johnson 'almost got thrown out of Oxford for leaking riot to Boris's paper' By Glen Owen More risk-taking side: Jo Johnson in a Bullingdon Club picture in 1993 When Boris Johnson's younger brother Jo was given a plum Downing Street job by David Cameron, the political commentators were agreed: Jo is a much more strait-laced figure than the London Mayor. But new revelations from his Oxford University days have shown a more risk-taking side to 'Johnson Minimus' - including a claim that he was threatened with expulsion from his college for selling a story to the national newspaper where Boris worked. He also showed flashes of his brother's rakishness in a review of the university's party scene which included a picture of amphetamine powder, complete with the caption: 'The solution?' Mr Cameron shocked Westminster last week by appointing 41-year-old Jo as head of his policy unit. The promotion prompted headlines about Jo becoming the 'first Johnson into No 10', with profile writers noting that although both men attended Eton and Oxford, only Jo - the more 'sensible' of the two - won a first-class degree. But according to a 1992 edition of the student newspaper Cherwell, Jo had more of a buccaneering image at the time. In a piece written to mark Jo's appointment as editor of Isis, a rival publication, Cherwell described Jo as a 'Nat-ite', a reference to his friendship with banker Nat Rothschild: Jo was famously pictured with Rothschild and George Osborne in a 1993 Bullingdon Club photograph unearthed by The Mail on Sunday. The Cherwell article, written at the start of Jo's second year as a Balliol history student, describes him as a 'Rothschild crony'. It says: 'His crowning glory was an article he penned for the Daily Torygraph over the summer about the New College Ball ... a 100-word piece shuffled into the corner of the Peterborough column.' According to Cherwell, Jo told the Telegraph that 'class war loonies' who had disrupted the rival ball were Balliol students, triggering a furious reaction. The Cherwell piece claimed that 'only a vast litigious stand-off between New, Balliol . . . Johnson and their various lawyers and their fat fees resolved the situation. Boris was the Telegraph's Brussels correspondent at the time. As editor of Isis, Jo co-authored a 'fresher's guide to Oxford parties', detailing 'the essential characteristics of a few of the most recurrent and unavoidable'. Johnson clan: Jo (right), journalist Rachel, 47 (centre), and Boris. Entrepreneur Leo, 45, not pictured The feature included a warning to avoid 'odd' people who approach 'with a nervous grin and an inane ceaseless patter that renders you speechless'. Jo quotes, by way of explanation, the sample dialogue: 'Hi, I saw you earlier in the lunch queue what's your name by the way I'm Andy from Dweebford in Kent do you want to dance ... no ... well come and have a coffee tomorrow morning ... not too early mind because what with all this drinking i do i won't be out of bed till 11 at least, probably 12.' Last night a source close to Boris said he not been involved in placing the story in the Telegraph. Jo Johnson did not respond to messages.