Carrie is acting like PM’s chief of staff, says former colleague
Calls for inquiry into role Boris’s fiancee plays in running country
BORIS Johnson’s fiancee has effectively become his Downing Street chief of staff, a former colleague of hers claimed last night.
Carrie Symonds’s ‘unelected and unaccountable’ role in Government is ‘damaging to democracy,’ according to Nic Conner, who worked with Miss Symonds on the Brexit campaign.
He insisted last night that he has no grudge against the former director of Tory communications and was not being sexist, but is concerned she is acting unconstitutionally as friends are hired and rivals fired inside No 10.
Mr Conner said: ‘In light of my experience working with Carrie Symonds, I am deeply concerned that she should have any role in governing the country without authority or accountability.
‘It is clear that Carrie is acting as more than just the Prime Minister’s private confidante. If reports are true, which I believe they are, then her role in government is similar to that of the chief of staff.
‘This is of serious concern as Carrie has not been security-vetted and is not accountable to anyone. She does not answer to anyone with legal authority and cannot be fired or voted out.
‘Anyone holding so much unelected power, and who cannot be removed, is not only unconstitutional but is damaging to British
‘Democracy must always be sacred’
democracy.’ Mr Conner’s comments came after the conservative think tank, the Bow Group – of which he is a research fellow – called for an independent inquiry into the role of Miss Symonds, 32, within government.
Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney added: ‘No romantic partner of the PM has ever involved themselves to this degree. It’s completely unjustifiable in a modern democracy, and calling me or the Bow Group sexist doesn’t change that.’
The Bow Group wants an inquiry into Miss Symonds’s alleged role in pushing out key Downing Street advisers. It also claims she was instrumental in appointing her close friend Nimco Ali as a Home Office adviser, and recruiting other allies to Downing Street.
Mr Harris-Quinney said: ‘Failure to clarify Ms Symonds’ position and authority, and to ensure that Ms Symonds is not and cannot take any action in governing the United Kingdom, potentially has huge hazards for the Government, the Conservative Party, and the nation. The public take a very dim view of cronyism, democracy in Britain is and must always be sacred, and no one should be involved in running our country without accountability to the people.’
The most prominent casualty of Miss Symond’s alleged influence was Mr Johnson’s right-hand man Dominic Cummings, who left in November after clashing with her.
Mr Cummings’s ally, communications chief Lee Cain, soon followed him out of the door amid claims that Miss Symonds was calling the PM 20 times a day, and had been nicknamed ‘Princess Nut Nut’ by her detractors.
In their place, a new group has grown in Downing Street consisting of allies of Miss Symonds and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. These include her friends
Henry Newman and Baroness Finn. Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, who was close to Mr Cummings, is thought to have tried to quit in protest at their arrival but was persuaded to stay and has been rewarded with a place in Cabinet.
Fresh battles became public on Friday when Oliver Lewis, another Cummings supporter, resigned as head of the Union Unit.
It was claimed that he had been briefing against Mr Gove and had been forced out as a result. But in a weekend of briefing and counter-briefing, it was also claimed Mr Gove had masterminded Mr Lewis’s departure over fears he was being sidelined by the PM.
Meanwhile Miss Symonds has been appointed head of communications at conservation charity the Aspinall Foundation, which is run by gambling tycoon Damian Aspinall. Earlier this month it was revealed that the organisation is being investigated by the Charity Commission amid concerns about what it calls ‘financial management and wider governance’.
A spokesman for Miss Symonds – who has a nine-month-old son with the 56-year-old PM – declined to comment on the allegations against her last night.