A VERY FORCEFUL FIRST LADY
Not since Lady Falkender ran Harold Wilson’s court with an iron grip has No 10 seen such an ambitious, influential and, yes, divisive PM’s consort as Carrie Symonds...
AS BORIS Johnson basked in his moment of glory yesterday after winning the Tory leadership contest, one person was conspicuous by her absence – his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, for whom Johnson ended his 25-year marriage to his second wife and the mother of four of his children, Marina Wheeler.
Miss Symonds, who is 24 years younger than Johnson, is expected to move into No 10 as the ‘First Lady’ of Downing Street.
It is a sign of changing attitudes to public morality that the archly traditional Conservative Party members voted for a leader who – in the judgmental language of the post-war age they grew up in – will be ‘living in sin’.
Miss Symonds, 31, is usually referred to as Johnson’s ‘girlfriend’. If the same yardstick was applied to his relationship with her it would give Johnson, 55, the less-than-dignified status of being Miss Symonds’ prime ministerial ‘boyfriend’.
Trying to calibrate the unconventional relationship of the new occupants of No10 with political protocol and precedent forged in a different age has produced an audible clashing of gears from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace.
Which is why, in line with her low profile yesterday, Symonds is not expected to pose for photos on the steps of Downing Street today alongside Johnson when he steps over the threshold in the time-honoured way of new prime ministers and their spouses.
Or accompany him when he ‘kisses hands’ with the Queen on being confirmed as Theresa May’s successor.
When Miss Symonds moves into No10, it is likely to be via the back door. But do not be fooled. Those who know her and have worked with her, including members of Johnson’s inner circle, say she will be the most political Downing Street ‘First Lady’ of all time.
Politics and power are in the blood of Miss Symonds. She was the product of an extramarital affair between newspaper editor Matthew Symonds and Josephine McAfee, who worked as a lawyer for Mr Symonds’ publication The Independent.
Looking further back, her existence is reputedly down to a tryst between Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and Miss Symonds’ great-grandmother Hilda in the early 1900s.
It may help explain how she seems to be completely unfazed by her rise from a lowly junior Tory press officer just two years ago to the most influential and prominent woman in British politics.
LIkE her predecessors Samantha Cameron and Norma Major, Miss Symonds will be able to use taxpayer-funded resources to run her own Downing Street office. She is also said to be planning to recruit her own ‘chief of staff’. But there the similarities end. Mrs Cameron and Mrs Major used Downing Street to host occasional receptions for charities while keeping out of politics.
Miss Symonds is expected to host No 10 events to promote causes she has been widely praised for championing, from cleaning up oceans to banning female genital mutilation and preventing the early release of black-cab rapist John Worboys, who targeted Miss Symonds when she was 19.
It would be wrong to dismiss her rise to fame as merely a modern example of a young attractive woman wooing a powerful older man.
True, Miss Symonds’ charm has helped her win the confidence of senior figures in politics, the charity world and the media.
But it takes more than that for a 31year-old to do what she has done and win the respect, confidence and friendship of senior Conservatives such as Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Matt Hancock, John Whittingdale and Zac Goldsmith.
They praise her ‘intelligence and instinct’, her ‘political antennae’ and her ‘innovative and brave’ social media campaigning
skills. There is no question Miss Symonds has been aided by deft use of the public relations skills she learned in ten years as a Tory spin doctor.
Unlike Mrs Cameron and Mrs Major, she has strong political convictions of her own. If Johnson tries to wriggle out of his ‘do or die’ pledge to take Britain out of the EU by October 31, the person he will be most worried about answering to is not Jacob Rees-Mogg but the diehard Brexiteer with whom he will be sharing his new No 10 bed.
However, it is not Miss Symonds’ political opinions and objectives that most concern her Conservative critics. It is how she will pursue them from her new power base. As Conservative director of communications until last year, she earned a reputation for leaking stories obtained from Downing Street briefings to the media – stories which were damaging to Mrs May and promoted Miss Symonds’ favoured ministers such as
Johnson and Michael Gove at the expense of others. It was the reason Mrs May’s staff blocked the ambitious Miss Symonds’ bid to work in No 10 in 2017. Instead she was put in charge of the less significant Tory Press Office. A year later she was sacked in all but name, forced out after claims that she abused her expenses and was incompetent, rude to colleagues and did not turn up for work. Her Tory detractors say she is ‘manipulative’, ‘volatile’ and unpopular with some of those who worked with her. ‘If she likes you, you’re all right. If she doesn’t, you need to watch your back,’ said one. ‘There was a fear factor even before she got together with Boris.’ This volatility was revealed last month when police were called to the flat she shared with Johnson after the couple had a blazing row.
THere are claims she had been involved in similar incidents before she met Johnson, prompting concern over the effect a turbulent relationship could have on Johnson at critical moments in Downing Street. Some say that his lawyer wife Marina, known for her brilliant intellect and discretion, would be more suited to the role of Downing Street companion than Miss Symonds, who loves political gossip and partying – and regularly posts her outspoken views and glamorous photographs of herself on social media.
She is said to be planning to create her own ‘kitchen cabinet’ of allies in the Tory Party and across Whitehall.
And she can expect strong support from the network of Westminster media cheerleaders. After her domestic spat with Johnson, consummate Pr expert Miss Symonds provided trusted journalists with gushing quotes in the name of ‘a friend of Carrie’ who declared the couple’s undying love and loyalty to each other.
She has close links with highly influential political news website Guido Fawkes, run by right-wing blogger Paul Staines, who last night praised Miss Symonds as ‘a great woman’.
Conservative minister Brooks Newmark was forced to resign in 2014 after the site revealed he sent lewd photos via social media to a woman he believed to be a female Tory fan.
In fact, the woman never existed. It was a ‘sting’ set up by former Guido reporter Alex Wickham, one of Miss Symonds’ closest friends, who said that he was acting on a tip-off that Newmark had indulged in such behaviour before.
One Tory insider explained: ‘If Boris’s ministers earn Boris’s – or Carrie’s – displeasure they are likely to hear of it first on Guido.’
A former minister claimed the only woman likely to have wielded as much power in No10 in the past was Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Downing Street ‘gatekeeper’ Marcia Falkender, who died earlier this year.
Baroness Falkender started out as a young party aide, was rapidly promoted by Wilson and reportedly had an affair with him. She also had a fling with a leading Fleet Street political editor and had two children by him.
Wilson’s colleagues said ‘impulsive’ and ‘unpredictable’ Lady Falkender presided over a ‘reign of fear’ in No 10.
But allies of Miss Symonds insist that she will be a major asset to Johnson in Downing Street.
The root cause of Miss Symonds’ exit from her Tory HQ job was her alleged abuse of power. She will have ten times as much in No 10.
Her many loyal friends insist that she will not abuse it.