In the open at last, Boris and lover, 30
Seen together for first time since his 25-year marriage ended, it’s Boris Johnson and his young lover who he calls his ‘Little Otter’. And her pet name for him..?
WITH bashful smiles and their eyes locked, he looks besotted – and so does she.
were Boris clearly Johnson smitten and Carrie with each Symonds other as they strolled together while exchanging loving glances.
To close friends who have loyally helped keep the couple’s growing romance under wraps, their cosy body language will come as no surprise. But for everyone else, these into ambitions fruition, Miss Street Mr For The Johnson, Westminster’s Symonds couple if pictures together. the it for could former have 54, the offer moving be kept and top newest a foreign he tantalising a job his and low in power ever wife to profile secretary’s 30-year- Downing come glimpse couple. Marina since old to announced strength breeze, With her former But has to they strength. blonde behind apparently Conservative were the hair divorcing scenes, been tousled Party going their last by official from September. relationship the Miss Johnson’s four, Symonds’ said to eyes body the smile suggests twice-married language as she a genuine looks expert father into commitment Judi Mr of his James. seeks A friend arm his And in protection. of one Mr the Johnson of way the she photos tucks said: ‘Boris herself shows is into she different her. gone deal. It’s through He around very just genuine. Carrie. all seems this He if like He it only wasn’t wouldn’t a better has the eyes have man real for around anything Amid Westminster her. to mess He’s it determined up.’ speculation not about to do whether third have Mrs Miss actually Johnson, Symonds moved it is unclear could in together. become if the couple the
home But certainly in Oxfordshire Mr Johnson – has been – who spotted owns a in London the mornings which Miss leaving Symonds the flat bought in South last year for a little over £ 650,000, with a creet at much New owned Stanley, holidayed Indeed, At mortgage. which with New Year party in by love’. where they holiday so Miss Year, with there Mr besotted were They his Symonds they last Johnson’s to for children. reportedly the also summer jointly close is Greek went Mr – friends, who hosted father Johnson Boris ‘very on villa is a a dis- only daughter source four has Lara years told Lettice older the – Mail: than that one his ‘ It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they ended up getting married once his divorce is all settled.’ Miss Symonds is already being teased with the nickname FLOTUS, as in ‘First Lady of the United States’, the acronym used by White House staffers for the President’s wife. But to Mr Johnson, she is simply his adorable ‘Little Otter’, the pet name he apparently calls her by. She, in turn, affectionately calls him ‘Bozzie Bear’ – after Fozzie, the big, fluffy-haired Muppet, reportedly. Miss Symonds is the daughter of one of the founders of the Independent newspaper, Matthew Symonds.
As the head of communications and PR at Conservative Campaign Headquarters, she was often seen at Tory party events.
It was at the Tory ‘ Black and White Ball’ last February that she was first spotted speaking to Mr Johnson as he left the party.
She left her job at CCHQ in August 2018 and was due to take up a position with Bloomberg, the financial news company, to do PR for its oceans conservation programme.
Rumours of a relationship reportedly started after she attended pri-
vate dinner dates and political functions with Mr Johnson. The pair were allegedly texting at all hours of the day and night.
Mr Johnson and his wife of 25 years announced their divorce in September, after news of the affair emerged.
Visible evidence of Miss Symonds’ influence on Mr Johnson’s political profile was on display yesterday when he delivered his Brexit speech in front of a JCB digger at the firm’s Staffordshire factory.
Mr Johnson’s shirt collar looked two sizes too big, a result of him losing at least two stone after she persuaded him to go on a diet. They also gave up drinking. She has brought the skills that earned her a formidable reputation as Tory HQ director of communications – where her job included telling Conservative ministers how to improve their public image – to bear on Mr Johnson.
He struck a notably more sober tone in a half-hour televised interview with LBC radio’s Nick Ferrari this week. Gone were Classics scholar Mr Johnson’s smart-alec references to Ancient Greece or Rome. And there were none of the contrived harrumphings and stutterings to avoid difficult questions which make him look both buffoonish and evasive.
Miss Symonds has also wooed him to some of her fashionable environmental hobbies, like saving elephants. Departing from the usual standard Brexit fare in his newspaper and magazine columns, he has written recently: ‘When I see an African elephant, I feel rage that their population is now down to 300,000, and that we are losing these animals at a rate of eight per cent a year.’
Around the same time, Miss Symonds berated Kim Kardashian for posing for photographs sitting on an elephant in a bikini. She tweeted: ‘Captive elephants used for tourists to ride and pose for pictures with, are stabbed and punched to break their spirits and to beat them into submission. DO NOT ever ride an elephant.’
Mr Johnson’s renewed leadership manoeuvrings come after Tory nemesis Michael Gove revived his own prospects with a devastating attack on Jeremy Corbyn at the end of the debate on Labour’s motion of no confidence in the Government.
Mr Gove’s speech was greeted with thunderous cheers by Conservative MPs crying out for Cabinet star quality. Mr Johnson has never forgiven Mr Gove for stabbing him in the back in the 2016 Tory leadership contest, after they led the referendum campaign as brothers in arms.
Mr Johnson’s rampant ambition and Mr Gove’s emergence as Mrs May’s most loyal and vocal Cabinet defender could set the stage for a leadership rematch if, as seems increasingly possible, the PM is forced to stand down in the next year or so.
Like Mr Johnson, Mr Gove has battled to stay trim. He joked in his Commons speech about being on a diet. Mr Gove is hoping that by staying loyal to Mrs May he can expunge the stain of having knifed Mr Johnson in 2016. Mr Johnson will always be the Tory faithful’s dashing blond hero.
But so was Michael Heseltine who betrayed Margaret Thatcher and lost out when John Major timed his late run to perfection.
The renewed Johnson- Gove rivalry has extra spice given that Mr Johnson’s campaign would inevitably be led by Miss Symonds. She knows all about Mr Gove’s leadership tactics having been in his campaign team in 2016 when he destroyed Mr Johnson.
She also talked Environment Secretary Mr Gove into adopting the same ‘cuddly’ environmental issues Mr Johnson now espouses. Mr Gove also led the Cabinet revolt which stopped the release from jail of black cab rapist John Worboys. Miss Symonds has written about being one of the women he attacked.
Mr Johnson’s campaign has received a £20,000 interest-free loan from the political strategist Sir Lynton Crosby, who ran his two London mayoral campaigns. The money came from Mr Crosby’s CTF Partners suggesting he will run Mr Johnson’s leadership operation. Mr Crosby was also the architect of David Cameron’s election campaign in 2015 when the Tories won their first overall majority since 1992.
But he was also heavily involved in Theresa May’s disastrous 2017 election in which she surrendered a 20 per cent lead in the polls and came close to losing altogether.
‘He only has eyes for her’