Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
But guess whose job Boris did try to save..
BORIS Johnson personally stepped in to try to save his girlfriend’s job at Tory HQ after she was allegedly accused of claiming thousands of pounds of unauthorised expenses.
Sources told the Mirror the wannabe Prime Minister called party chiefs last August to ask them to keep Carrie Symonds on in her £80,000-ayear director of communications role.
Miss Symonds, 31, had allegedly been asked by her bosses to step down amid claims her performance was not up to scratch.
Tory sources reportedly said she was also accused of using the names of junior staff members to book cabs for herself and claiming for social events when she was off-duty.
Senior party officials asked her to quit last summer. They allegedly told her that if she did not agree to go she would face the sack. Sources said Miss Symonds recruited her lover to argue for her job. But one claimed his attempts were viewed by Tory chiefs as “a bit half-hearted”.
It came a month after he quit as Foreign Secretary over Theresa May’s Brexit plans, and weeks before the revelation of their affair which was already in full swing, the two having been seen having a romantic lunch the previous Valentine’s Day.
Another senior Tory MP close to Miss Symonds also rang Tory chiefs to make a “very impassioned” appeal for her job. But the pleas fell on deaf ears and she left last summer, later taking up a job as an oceans campaigner.
Johnson and his estranged wife, Marina Wheeler, announced last September that they were divorcing.
Miss Symonds is expected to move into No10 if he becomes PM. Sources on the Johnson campaign claim he has already started referring to herself as “First Lady”. Miss Symonds is a divisive figure in Tory circles.
One former colleague said: “She was often missing in action, she left work early and took time off sick during big events. She clearly thought that different rules applied to her than to everyone else. The expenses were the final straw.”
A spokesman declined to comment on the expenses allegations. Miss Symonds’ friends dismissed claims of poor performance as smears.
Former Tory aide Stephen Canning said: “She was one of the hardestworking people at Conservative Campaign HQ who worked all hours under the sun to deliver victories for the Conservatives”. A spokesman for Mr Johnson declined to comment.
The couple’s relationship came under the spotlight last month as police were called to their flat in South London amid a furious row. Friends of Miss Symonds denied it was serious and claimed that the couple were ready to marry when the time was right.