How does she keep calm and Carrie on?

THIS cannot have been an easy week for the Prime Minister’s partner, Carrie Symonds. The air was already thick with stories of Boris’s ‘ technology lessons’ in the London flat of a blonde American businesswoman — and claims of his thigh-groping antics at a drink-sodden lunch — when Carrie was forced into the public glare at the Tory conference in Manchester.

Every outfit was scrutinised, from the Tory-blue coat to the animalprint dress with blue heart-shaped earrings. For the first time, the First Girlfriend — at 31, little more than half his age — was on parade.

She chose a bright pink, ruffled dress for the leader’s speech — it was spot on: demure, with its high collar and below-knee hem, but also colourful. And because they are not husband and wife, she sensibly broke with convention, remaining in her seat to applaud Boris’s speech, rather than rushing up to the stage as spouses have in the past.

Her moment came after Boris made his way to Carrie in the front row. A hug and a kiss, the couple’s first public display of affection.

Then they went walkabout — and Carrie was clinging on to Boris’s arm like a survivor of the Titanic. She was at points clutching him with both hands, as if fearful he might escape. And, of course, that is exactly what he has done from so many women in the past. Crikey, the intricacies of Boris’s personal life are more complex than the Irish backstop! The trouble is that Carrie, however well she plays her part in public, is a constant reminder that Boris has a women problem.

A reminder that he left Marina, his wife of 25 years, for her and that his children have not forgiven him for it. A reminder that he simply can’t help himself.

It makes an already wary female voting population wonder if he is a man to be trusted, which bodes badly for the inevitable forthcoming election. A poll last week showed female voters are more likely to describe Boris as ‘dislikeable’ and ‘out of touch’ — than men.

I fervently believe Boris is the man who can take us out of the EU, and our nation is infinitely safer in the hands of a Conservative government led by him than a government led by the odious Marxist Jeremy Corbyn.

But in the election every vote will count. And in a world where women voters could shun Boris on account of his peccadilloes, the less we see of cling-on Carrie the better.