‘Cool’ Carrie is lavished with gifts at No 10
CARRIE Symonds is the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to reside at Downing Street and to be invited by the Queen to Balmoral.
But far from her status causing embarrassment, she is being lavished with gifts by Middle Eastern royalty and British manufacturers who have declared her ‘cool’.
According to information released by the Cabinet Office under transparency rules, 31-year- old Carrie (pictured) was sent a wristwatch, two pairs of trendy sunglasses and cosmetics after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister last July.
The sunglasses were donated by manufacturers ToyShades, the wristwatch was from Shropshire clockmakers Newgate World, and the cosmetics were from King Abdullah of Jordan.
‘ We saw a picture of her wearing Italian sunglasses,’ a spokesman for ToyShades tells me. ‘ We thought, if the British First Lady isn’t wearing British shades, then how could we convince the public to buy British?’ The glasses cost £44 a pair.
Not to be outdone, Newgate World sent Carrie a watch designed by the company’s British owner Jim Read.
His grandfather Eddie Read developed radio technology for MI5. ‘Eddie was a bit like Q in James Bond,’ says a Newgate spokesman. ‘He invented lots of gadgetry, was proficient in Morse Code and was a staunch HAM radio fanatic. ‘ We sent it to Carrie because we think she is cool.’ Under the current Cabinet Office rules, if ministers and their partners wish to keep any unsolicited gifts valued at more than £ 140, they must pay for the portion of the value that is in excess of £140, plus any tax that the gift may attract.
But it seems Carrie decided she didn’t want the watch or the sunglasses (even though they were under the limit) — or indeed the cosmetics.
The gifts are now being ‘held by department’ and have become the property of the government.
Carrie is not a high-maintenance prime ministerial consort. She wore a £ 69 Marks & Spencer herringbone coat and a £98 velvet Anthropologie skirt when she stood on the steps of No 10 on the day Boris led the Tories to a landslide victory.