Carrie steps into the spotlight
After the PM’S partner makes her first public speech, The Spectator’s Lara Prendergast examines how she’s settling into Downing Street…
When Carrie symonds , the Prime Minister’s 31-year-old partner, made her first public speech since moving into Downing Street, she chose Birdfair, also known as ‘birdwatchers’ Glastonbury’, to speak about politicians’ ‘gigantic responsibility’ to look after the environment.
She had been appalled to discover that ‘sick and cowardly’ people still went trophy hunting for puffins, she told the crowd. ‘Why would anyone want to destroy something so beautiful, then stuff its poor lifeless body to keep as some kind of macabre trophy?’ Even Carrie’s festival outfit was eco-friendly – consisting of a Liberty-print dress from Justine Tabak paired with green wellies and a saddle bag. Her appearance was, by all accounts, a success.
Yet a close friend of hers tells me that she was pretty nervous before the speech, because she knew that all eyes would be on her. Carrie is starting to discover what life in No. 10 is like – and that it’s not always so easy to ‘control the narrative’, something she prided herself on doing when she worked as a Tory PR chief.
Just last week, she was refused a US visitors’ visa for an upcoming official Government trip, thought to be because she made a five-day visit last year to Somaliland with her friend Nimko Ali, the anti-fgm campaigner. What’s more, it emerged that Carrie needs to renew her passport every six months, because she has recently lost three and the Passport Office has refused to give her a standard 10-year passport.
Couldn’t the British Government just sort all that out? After all, she is the partner of the most powerful man in Britain. Not really, as it turns out. She is not allowed to ask Downing Street to intervene. She is Boris Johnson’s girlfriend – rather than his wife (he’s currently divorcing his second wife, Marina Wheeler) – and officials were very clear that when she moved in with the PM, there would be ‘no extra cost to the taxpayer’.
Of course, her most difficult moment in the public eye so far was the now-notorious Camberwell domestic, when her then neighbours recorded Boris and her shouting at each other during the leadership campaign. It’s hardly surprising then that Carrie left that flat and last month accompanied the Prime Minister into Downing Street. But she has to be low-key and often leaves via the back door.
She and the Prime Minister now live in the flat at Number 11, which is larger than the one above Number 10. One Tory insider whispers that Treasury officials who work in Number 11 have become used to seeing Carrie walking through their offices.
In some ways, Carrie’s ‘girlfriend status’ gives her more freedom. Still working full-time for Oceana, an ocean conservation charity, she doesn’t travel with a security detail of her own, despite the considerable public interest in her. It’s only when she’s with boyfriend Boris that she’s accompanied by security guards.
Still, she hasn’t quite given up her former role as a Tory spinner. According to another insider, she’s still involved with unofficial press briefings and is frequently seen dropping into the No.10 press office.
Meanwhile, the parties have begun in Downing Street. Boris and Carrie now regularly host dinners for MPS there, as well as at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s countryside estate. When the Chancellor Sajid Javid and his wife went for dinner recently, they arrived with a ‘stash’ of Tignanello – £80-a-bottle red wine from Italy – a favourite of the Duchess of Sussex. Let’s hope Boris managed to avoid spilling it all over the sofa.
Earlier this month, a delivery from John Lewis arrived at their new home and an old mattress was spotted being tossed into a skip. And yet, with a possible snap election on the near horizon, she may be holding off on a complete overhaul, only for a successor to enjoy all the benefits.
The next big occasion for Boris and Carrie will be in September, when they are due to stay with the Queen in Balmoral – making Carrie the first unmarried partner of a sitting Prime Minister to visit Her Majesty’s Scottish home. Nobody knows yet whether they will be allowed to share a bedroom. The Queen is known for her traditional family values; the Prime Minister isn’t exactly famed for his. At least Carrie won’t need her passport.
Lara Prendergast is assistant editor of ‘The Spectator’