Row over Carrie, her pal, and claims of a lockdown ‘breach’ with PM at No10
...AND fury at report that she is ‘bitter’ about Kate’s slick PR
A ROW broke out last night over allegations that Boris Johnson and his now wife Carrie broke Covid lockdown rules last Christmas by allowing her best friend to stay with them at Downing Street.
The Prime Minister denied claims in the US Harper’s Magazine that political campaigner Nimco Ali ‘spent Christmas with the couple at No10 despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings’.
The article also said that Mrs Johnson ‘modelled’ her wardrobe and public image on the Duchess of Cambridge, but is ‘bitter’ that the duchess gets better publicity.
Spokesmen for the Prime Minister and Mrs Johnson said both claims were untrue.
The 4,500-word profile of the couple says Mrs Johnson has ‘assembled an impressive court around her’ while the PM is a ‘lonely figure’ and ‘quite scared’ of her.
It claims he spends ‘more and more time downstairs’ at No 10 reading – including a book by his ex-wife Marina Wheeler, because he ‘doesn’t want to take it upstairs’.
The Harper’s article is written by Lara Prendergast, executive editor of The Spectator magazine, edited by Mr Johnson before he entered politics and which has strong links to Downing Street.
In the piece she describes how she put her claims over the Christmas gathering to No10. She says that a spokesman told her ‘the Prime Minister and Mrs Johnson follow coronavirus rules at all times’ – but did not deny the claim. She adds that Miss Ali, godmother to the Johnsons’ son Wilfred, ‘did not respond to repeated requests for comment’.
Last Christmas, London was under Tier 4 restrictions, meaning people should not have mixed with anyone outside their households, except in support and childcare bubbles.
The article follows claims of cronyism when, just before Christmas, Miss Ali, who campaigns against female genital mutilation, was made a Home Office adviser on tackling violence against women and girls. It was later disclosed that the role, for which she is paid £350 a day for around two days’ work a month, was not advertised openly.
The profile says Miss Ali ‘is regularly sent out to fight for Carrie in the press’.
The article also suggests Mrs Johnson, 33, who married the Prime Minister in May and is now expecting their second child, sees the Duchess of Cambridge as a rival.
‘Carrie is said to model both her fashion sense and her press operations on Catherine,’ Miss Prendergast writes. ‘A confidant told me Carrie is often preoccupied with the duchess, and expressed bitterness about Kate’s ability to generate positive items about herself in the British press.’
The claims were strongly rebutted last night. A No10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister and Mrs Johnson have followed coronavirus rules at all times. It is totally untrue to suggest otherwise.’
And a spokesman for Mrs Johnson said it was ‘rubbish’ to suggest she modelled herself on the Duchess of Cambridge or was ‘bitter’.
Elsewhere in the article, Miss Prendergast praises ‘brandfocused’ Mrs Johnson, a former Tory HQ head of communications, for cleaning up the PM’s ‘shabby image’ and getting him to embrace ‘progressive’ causes such as animal welfare and women’s rights.
She notes: ‘She saw in him a project... a man with huge popularity but few allies and friends, a right-wing political beast to be relaunched with the tastes of sensitive millennials in mind.
‘The Conservatives were known as the “nasty party”. Under Carrie, they are becoming cute.’
The article says Mrs Johnson has ‘assembled an impressive court around her and is more mediasavvy’ than most ministers. But Miss Prendergast questions her methods. She writes: ‘The Down
‘Turns on those she cannot trust’
ing Street press office seems terrified of her. She is said to feed information to contacts to see where it then appears, and will turn on those she feels she cannot trust.’
The magazine says Mr Johnson increasingly stays in his No 10 study instead of joining his wife in their official flat. It adds: ‘“He likes to read The Spectator late at night,” one former aide tells me. A copy of The Lost Homestead, the new book by his ex-wife Marina Wheeler (about her Indian heritage), has been spotted open in his office.’
The profile also challenges the way questions about aspects of Mrs Johnson’s conduct are brushed aside, adding: ‘Any attempt to scrutinise her growing political influence is deemed misogynistic.’
‘Previously, a prime minister’s spouse would have faced minimal press intrusion... but the current situation is different.’
The article concludes: ‘To plenty of people, it seems... a little odd that a 33-year-old woman who specialises in political spin has such apparent influence over policymaking. She is unelected and, in many ways, unaccountable.’
IT was probably way past his bedtime. But little Wilfred Johnson showed no sign of tiredness as he was carried on his dad Boris’ shoulders for a family book launch on Thursday evening.
The Prime Minister decided to take the 17-month-old to see his grandfather Stanley as he promoted his latest novel in central London.
And he was well equipped for the trip, with a bottle of milk for the toddler stashed in his jacket pocket.
The expedition to see the launch of Mr Johnson Sr’s 9/11 thriller From An Antique Land at Daunt Books in Marylebone proved a quick turnaround for father and son – as they apparently had only just arrived back at Heathrow
‘Larking around with pupils’
on a flight from Spain with Wilf’s mother Carrie.
The family had spent a week at Tory peer Zac Goldsmith’s £25,000-a-week villa in Marbella.
The PM carried Wilf on his shoulders for a while before handing him to his niece so he could talk to some of the other attendees at the launch. They left shortly before the event ended at around 8.30pm.
Others at the book shop included reality TV star Georgia Toffolo, 26, a friend of the elder Mr Johnson.
And yesterday the Prime Minister was once again tasked with entertaining the children, when he visited a primary school in Bristol. After larking around with pupils at Westbury-on-Trym CofE Academy, he moved on to more serious matters with them such as discussing climate change and helping out with some gardening.
In reference to the upcoming Cop26 climate summit at the end of the month, he wrote on a cut-out paper leaf: ‘I promise to get world leaders to cut greenhouse gases and help save the planet. Boris’.
Mr Johnson also held an away-day Cabinet meeting in the city, attended by the likes of new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and Home Secretary Priti Patel. The meeting comes ahead of a Global Investment Summit taking place in London next week, aimed at attracting more cash from overseas.