... and Carrie’s back on the beat
Johnson’s girlfriend keeps it casual for a spot of shopping
‘She looked a lot younger’
SINCE her row with Boris Johnson almost two weeks ago, Carrie Symonds has kept out of the public eye.
But the 31-year-old has finally broken cover – to go shopping with a friend in fashionable Notting Hill.
Her purple and white tie-dye T-shirt and fake leather trousers created a very different image to the smart outfits she typically wears when accompanying 55-year-old Mr Johnson.
At one point she was spotted trying on rings in a jewellery shop on Portobello Road, west London, with her close friend Nimco Ali, a campaigner against female genital mutilation.
Mr Johnson’s campaign to succeed Theresa May was rocked last month when it emerged neighbours had called the police after hearing Miss Symonds scream ‘get off me’ and ‘get out of my flat’ during a midnight row. Police said there were ‘no offences or concerns’.
But neighbours, who are politically opposed to Mr Johnson and Brexit, released a recording of the row to The Guardian newspaper and the couple had to flee Miss Symonds’s £700,000 flat in Camberwell, South London.
Pictures then emerged of Mr Johnson and Miss Symonds gazing into each other’s eyes at a table in the Sussex countryside after apparently making up over the following weekend. But there was widespread speculation that the photographs had been taken before the row and released by someone close to the couonce ple in an attempt to quell rumours of a split. On the day that the pictures were released, Miss Ali said the ‘expectation’ is the couple will marry Mr Johnson has divorced his second wife Marina Wheeler. Miss Symonds and Miss Ali’s trip to Notting Hill took place on Tuesday.
As well as her £23 tie-dye T-shirt, Miss Symonds also wore a friendship bracelet, hooped earrings, a black backpack and heeled sandals.
One onlooker said: ‘Carrie seemed in good spirits given everything that has happened over the past two weeks. Her outfit was pretty eye-catching and was certainty a lot different to what she wears with Boris. It made her look a lot younger.’
Miss Symonds, a former director of communications for the Conservative Party, and her friend stopped for a drink at a café before visiting a deli, a charity shop and a branch of the Neal’s Yard health and beauty store. She was also pictured trying on several hats.
On her Twitter page, Miss Symonds said she had enjoyed a ‘super day discussing great ideas around tackling plastic pollution’ with Miss Ali.
She has been a notable omission from Mr Johnson’s campaign and has declined to respond to questions about the state of their relationship. Mr Johnson has also refused to answer questions about his private life.
Miss Symonds has quit Tory HQ and taken up a role with Bloomberg, leading the media giant’s ecological initiative Vibrant Oceans.