PM criticised for taking break with Symonds

BORIS JOHNSON was accused of complacency last night after it emerged that he spent the weekend in the New Forest with Carrie Symonds, his girlfriend.

The Prime Minister headed for the national park after Ms Symonds, it is understood, recommended the couple spend time together before the six-week election campaign.

However, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn last night accused Mr Johnson of taking “voters for granted”, telling The Daily Telegraph: “The Prime Minister should be out meeting the public, not hiding away in the New Forest.”

Describing the comments as “absurd”, Downing Street last night insisted Mr Johnson had been in touch with senior staff all weekend and had been working at No10 yesterday.

“There has been no shortage of the Prime Minister out and about visiting places,” a senior source said. “We’re about to have a gruelling sixweek campaign. I think people who start to question his commitment at this stage will look pretty absurd.”

Meanwhile, the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, of which Ms Symonds is a patron, is pushing to have the compulsory labelling of halal and kosher meat included in the party’s election manifesto.

The campaign group, which is also backed by ministers Dominic Raab, Zac Goldsmith and Theresa Villiers, has presented a blueprint manifesto to the Prime Minister.

Ms Symonds has taken six weeks of unpaid leave from her job at the environmental group Oceana to campaign for young, female candidates in the election. In her previous job as head of communications for the Conservative Party, she managed to convince ministers to adopt animal welfare policies. The group has also suggested bans on foie gras and the export of live farm animals for fattening and slaughter.

It is not compulsory to state on packaging how farm animals are raised and slaughtered. Animals killed for halal and kosher meat are often not stunned before slaughter and die by having their throats slit.

Lorraine Platt, the group’s founder, said: “Consumers have seen pictures [on labels] of rolling hills and green fields and this can be misleading as the reality is the product can be derived from an intensive farm where they have a very little quality of life.”