Boris takes aim at ‘Carrie clique’
BY GLEN OWEN, DAN HODGES AND MARK HOOKHAM As bombshell book claims he is controlled by wife, he orders shake-up of No10 – and out goes one of her best friends
BORIS JOHNSON last night embarked on a historic shake-up of his embattled Downing Street operation, which has led to the departure of a key member of one of the so-called ‘Carrie clique’ of advisers linked to his wife.
Just hours after the Daily Mail revealed the first details of a bombshell new biography portraying Mr Johnson as a weak prime minister who is so ‘mesmerised’ by his 33-year-old wife that he allows her to influence policies and appointments, sources said adviser Henry Newman would leave
No10 to return to work for his old boss Michael Gove.
The book, First Lady, by Michael Ashcroft, former Tory Party deputy chairman, has fanned concerns within the party about the power wielded by Mrs Johnson and the No 10 advisers she is close to – with Mr Newman the name most frequently mentioned.
It comes as Mr Johnson responded to criticism of a chaotic, dysfunctional No 10 by establishing a new Office of the Prime Minister, which will be integrated with
‘They’d brief against senior cabinet ministers’
the cabinet office under a powerful new chief of staff, cabinet office minister Steve Barclay.
He has also lured back Guto Harri, an adviser from his days as London mayor, to be his new director of communications.
Mr Johnson, who ordered the changes from his Chequers country retreat, hopes that they will ease pressure from his backbenches to face a vote of no confidence in his leadership in the wake of the ‘Partygate’ scandal and this week’s string of resignations of No10 aides.
A Tory party source stressed that chancellor Rishi Sunak, who has been accused alongside health secretary Sajid Javid of distancing himself from Mr Johnson’s political problems to further his own leadership ambitions, was closely involved in the discussions.
This week’s shock resignation of No10 policy chief Munira Mirza came after a series of clashes with Mr Newman over issues such as his ‘woke’ defence of transgender rights – although the official reason given was her objection to Mr Johnson’s claim that, when he was director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile.
A further four advisers left in her immediate wake.
Lynton Crosby, a long-term strategist for Mr Johnson, is also understood to have made clear his reluctance to return to help his former boss – acting as his ‘babysitter’ according to one source – while Mr Newman was still in post.
Mr Newman, who was working for Mr Gove when he withdrew his support for Mr Johnson in the 2016 Tory leadership election, was also at the centre of the so-called ‘chatty rat’ lockdown leak in 2020, but strongly denied being the culprit.
One insider told the MoS: ‘This is the man who did more than anyone to encourage Michael [Gove] to stab Boris in the back.
‘But he’s used his relationship with Carrie to ingratiate himself back into the inner circle. He’s always up in the flat with her, and that gives him direct access to the PM. The rest of the No10 team have no idea what he’s saying to him. And that’s the root cause of a lot of this’.
Pressure to limit the influence exerted by Mrs Johnson and her allies coincides with the imminent publication of Mr Ashcroft’s book, which makes a number of controversial claims including that:
● Mr Johnson voiced his anguish and frustration at the way his wife tried to exert her influence over the running of Downing Street, and declared ‘F*** Carrie’ when a key
‘Boris divides the world into pro- or anti-Carrie’
No10 aide turned down a major promotion on the grounds that he did not trust her;
● Boris made excuses to avoid going up to the Downing Street flat he shares with Mrs Johnson and told one colleague, ‘You don’t understand what it’s like upstairs’; ● He warned aides that ‘Carrie would be cross with him’ if her friends were not given jobs in Downing Street; the aides also suspected that Mrs Johnson was secretly sending tweets and text messages on Mr Johnson’s phone.
No 10 strongly rejects all the claims, saying the book contained ‘vile fabrications’ that were ‘designed to humiliate and discredit Mrs Johnson’, while other
stories amounted to ‘tittletattle’, ‘offensive nonsense’ and ‘deliberately hurtful smears which are far removed from reality’, adding, ‘Mr and Mrs Johnson have a very emotionally supportive relationship’.
Mr Ashcroft says his book has been ‘meticulously researched’ and nobody in No10 had read it so he doesn’t understand the basis of the criticism.
One senior insider claims members of the ‘Carrie clique’ would directly brief against cabinet ministers such as defence secretary Ben Wallace, Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis and environment secretary George Eustice.
‘I have evidence that they would pretend to Boris that they knew ministers were briefing against him when it wasn’t true, in order to make him paranoid.
‘He’d go mad. It was done deliberately to create divisions Team Carrie could exploit,’ the insider said, adding, ‘They even claimed that members of his own family were doing it’.
This is also denied by No10, with a close ally of Mr Joihnson saying, ‘There is a cabal of former advisers who used to leak information and then blame Carrie. They resented the fact that Boris was closer to Carrie than them – too f ****** right he was’.
The prime minister has told allies that he is now in ‘delivery mode’ and will announce plans to tackle the NHS operations backlog and the migration crisis within days.
Mr Johnson said last night: ‘The changes I’m announcing to my senior team today will improve how No 10 operates, strengthen the role of my cabinet and backbench colleagues, and accelerate our mission to level up the country.’
The surprise return for Mr Harri comes after he was suspended last year by GB News for taking the knee live on air during a debate about racism towards England’s black footballers.
The channel apologised and said the controversial gesture had breached its standards, with Mr Harri resigning in protest and declaring that GB News was ‘rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be’.
In 2018 Mr Harri claimed that Mr Johnson was ‘digging his political grave’ after a series of ill-judged remarks in a newspaper column, and said that he would be ‘hugely divisive’ as prime minister.
He unleashed a torrent of scathing criticism about his former boss when interviewed by the BBC, suggesting that Mr Johnson had gone from being seen as a unifying politician attractive to voters across the political divide, to a far more politically tribal figure.
Last night, senior Tory MP Steve Baker entered the debate over Mrs Johnson.
He said: ‘Only this week Boris announced he would be working with Graham Brady and the 1922 Committee to ensure MPs have a proper say on policy, meaning a move away from the reported influence that friends and family have been exerting over No 10.
‘And that’s a very positive thing. We all have friends and family we listen to. But the public have a right to expect MPs will have some influence over the development of major policy too.’
But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg mounted a strong defence of Mrs Johnson, describing the criticisms of her as ‘cowardly and underhand’.
He said: ‘Attacks of this nature have a long and unpleasant history. They are fundamentally hostile to women by targeting the wife or partner of a government minister – not the man himself.
‘The prime minister has always made his own decisions. It is notable how he can upset his advisers who wrongly think that they – not the PM – rule the roost.’
But another minister said: ‘I realised long ago that Boris divides the world into two camps – pro-Carrie and anti-Carrie. If you fall into the wrong camp you risk quickly becoming an ex-minister.’
And a senior government source said: ‘There is no question that Carrie’s influence, or the perception of her influence through her clique, has contributed to the dysfunction of the operation.’
With increasing numbers of Tory MPs submitting letters calling for a vote of no confidence – former minister Nick Gibb became the latest Tory to submit one on Friday – No10 is eyeing Thursday, when MPs go away for their half-term recess. ‘If we get to then without a vote then Boris should be safe until May,’ said a source.
It is understood Mr Johnson is being helped to restructure the No10 operation by a small team of core advisers including Isaac Levido, the campaign director of the 2019 general election.
Mr Ashcroft’s book details how exuberant dancing to the music of Abba has regularly marked moments of triumph and celebration for Mr Johnson and his wife.
During one party held in the Downing Street flat to celebrate Britain leaving the EU in January 2020, the prime minister was ‘pretty much ordered to dance’, one source is quoted as saying.
‘Everyone was whooping and cheering as he did so. For a few seconds it was as though he was one of those dancing Russian bears.
‘If you stay with Carrie, have a vasectomy’
‘He was like a dancing Russian bear. It was sad’
There was something rather sad about it.’
Mrs Johnson’s love of Abba features in the police Partygate inquiry. An alleged ‘Winner Takes it All’ gathering in the Johnsons’ apartment in November 2020 is one of 12 events being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.
The book includes the astonishing claim that Mr Johnson declared ‘F*** Carrie’ when a key No10 aide turned down a major promotion.
It is claimed Mr Johnson made the remark to aide Lee Cain as he tried in vain to persuade him to become his chief of staff. Their heated discussion was allegedly interrupted by a telephone call from Queen Elizabeth.
The claim was last night described by No10 as ‘nothing more than baseless tittle-tattle’.
In a further explosive claim, the book alleges that in 2019 one of the prime minister’s most senior advisers urged Mr Johnson ‘that if he intended to stay with Carrie, he should have a vasectomy’.
Downing Street last night denied the claim, saying, ‘Mr Johnson has never had this conversation. It is simply incorrect’.
A No 10 source said that the shakeup would ‘drive the government’s agenda more efficiently and ensuring it is better aligned with the Cabinet and backbenchers’.
The source said: ‘Steve will become the prime minister’s new chief of staff, working directly with cabinet colleagues to ensure the prime minister’s levelling-up agenda is driven forward and delivered at maximum speed.’