Baroness Helena Morrissey, the chairman-elect of AJ Bell, has been criticised in the national press for saying on her social media that the UK is not currently in the midst of a pandemic.

Reports in The Independent and The Daily Mail called for Boris Johnson to sack her from a Foreign Office role for suggesting the threat of the spread of Coronavirus has been exaggerated.

The Independent said Baroness Morrissey had denied the Coronavirus pandemic exists at present and suggested the crisis has been exaggerated because people are not “dropping dead in the street.”

The Tory peer and future chairman of investment platform AJ Bell has in recent weeks been using her personal Twitter account to call for a quicker end to lockdown restrictions.

She reacted to the reports by posting on the social media platform: “I do not and have never denied the existence of the pandemic; I have always called for proportionate reactions and a balancing of the risks for different parts of the population. I believe that the data shows the pandemic is now over and we should be opening up more quickly.”

Baroness Morrissey stepped down as a non-executive director at wealth manager St James’s Place last month after 14 months to become chair at investment platform AJ Bell.

The intention is that she will succeed Les Platts as chair at AJ Bell's next Annual General Meeting, expected to take place in January 2022.

In the meantime Baroness Morrissey will become a non-executive director at AJ Bell, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, joining the board as chair designate on 1 July.

AJ Bell declined to comment on the reports from The Independent and The Daily Mail.

She is currently lead non-executive director for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, reporting to the Foreign Secretary.

Previously she has held a number of financial positions including head of Personal Investing at Legal & General Investment Management and chief executive at Newton Investment Management.

She is also the founder of the 30% Club, a global campaign to increase gender diversity at companies, and has played a leading role in improving the diversity on the board of UK corporations.