But Boris finds it tough going on £150,000, say his friends
BORIS Johnson may have been trying to lose the pounds lately... but not the ones sitting in his bank.
The Prime Minister is ‘worried’ about money, according to his friends.
As a backbench MP, with a newspaper column earning him £275,000 and lucrative speaking engagements, he was taking home at least £350,000 a year.
But now that he is Prime Minister, he has seen his income drop by more than half to £150,000.
He is supporting four of his six children and has been through a costly divorce.
The use of the Downing Street flat he shares with his fiancee, Carrie Symonds is taxed as a benefit in kind.
Food sent up from the Downing Street kitchen has to be paid for.
And if the couple want to have friends stay at Chequers then they get a bill from the Government.
One friend told The Times: ‘Boris, like other prime ministers, is very, very badly served... He doesn’t have a housekeeper, he has a single cleaner and they’re worried about being able to afford a nanny.
‘He’s stuck in the flat and Downing Street is not a nice place to live.
‘It’s not like the Elysee or the White House where you can get away from it all because they’re so big. Even if he or Carrie want to go into the rose garden they have to go through the office.’
Another friend added: ‘He’s always worried about money, he has a genuine need to provide for his family, all of them, and I think that does worry him.’
Sources said it was untrue he was worried and complaining about money.