Tory war over Carrie’s power
Think- t ank that includes Tebbit and Lamont demands inquiry into behind scenes inf luence of the PM’s fiancee But her allies hit back and Bow Group member Sir John Redwood blasts its shock intervention as ‘a very bad idea’
BITTER Tory in-fighting broke out last night after a Conservative-friendly think-tank demanded an inquiry into the power of Boris Johnson’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds.
Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group – which boasts Tory heavyweights Norman Tebbit and Norman Lamont among its patrons – called for an independent investigation into the influence that Ms Symonds exerts in Downing Street.
Allies hit back to insist that it was normal for a Prime Minister to consult his partner, not least because Ms Symonds is a former director of communications for the Tory Party.
And senior Tory MP Sir John Redwood, another of the think-thank’s patrons, disowned the Bow Group’s intervention, dismissing it as a ‘very bad idea’. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The PM is responsible for who advises him and he is quite entitled to take advice from anybody he likes.’
The Bow Group – which claims to be Britain’s oldest conservative think-tank – called for a ‘judicial review and Government inquiry’ into Ms Symonds’s ‘unelected and unaccountable’ role.
Mr Harris-Quinney said an urgent inquiry was needed because the PM’s partner ‘holds no official role in the Conservative Party or the Government, yet consistent reports in the press suggest that Ms Symonds is taking a central role in running the country, without any authority or accountability’.
Some Tory MPs privately said that the Bow Group was only expressing what many colleagues felt about Ms Symonds’ undue influence at No 10.
But others claimed that Mr Harris-Quinney held a grudge against Ms Symonds since she played a key role when he faced calls to be suspended from the party because of his views on homosexuality. In 2015 he was branded a ‘homophobe’ over his opposition to gay marriage after a complaint about him from Iain Dale, a writer on the independent Conservative Home blog.
The Bow Group report cited claims that Ms Symonds has played a role in the appointment of her friend Nimco Ali to a Government job, and helped to force out key No 10 aides Dominic Cummings, Lee Cain and Oliver Lewis over recent months.
Mr Harris-Quinney added: ‘She has not been elected, she has not been appointed, she holds no legal or constitutional powers to make
‘The public takes a very dim view of cronyism’
decisions relating to who should hold government posts.’ He insisted that ‘the public takes a very dim view of cronyism… and no one should be running our country without accountability to the people’.
Some critics say the shock resignation of Downing Street aide Mr Lewis on Friday was only the latest example of what is claimed to be Ms Symonds’s growing power, with members of the Vote Leave faction supplanted by her friends.
Mr Lewis, Mr Cummings’s most senior remaining ally in Downing Street, quit last week amid reports he had been wrongly accused by Ms Symonds and the PM of briefing against Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove.
One former Minister said last night that the Bow Group was only asking questions that many fellow
Tory MPs were asking over what exactly was going on at No 10.
He said: ‘ My suspicion is that Oliver Lewis is the victim of Carrie’s favouritism for Henry Newman. But he’s an extraordinarily br i ght man a nd very hi ghl y regarded in the party. He worked so well with [ Brexit negotiator] David Frost so it’s not good to see them separated.’ Mr Harris-Quinney said last night that the thinktank had decided of its own volition to call for the inquiry. But he claimed that some Tory MPs were worried that the No 10 intrigue was a ‘ detriment’ to retaining their seats. ‘They are concerned about how this looks and how Carrie Symonds in particular does not play well in their constituencies,’ he said.
He denied that he had a grudge against Ms Symonds or that he had made homophobic remarks. He also insisted he was no longer a Tory member in 2015.
Calls for an i nquiry i nto Ms Symonds’s influence focused yesterday on the issue of whether she had a pivotal role in hiring and firing at No 10. But some MPs are also worried over her impact on Government policies.
She is famously passionate about nature conservation and animal welfare, sparking suggestions that, aged just 32, she may feel better connected to younger voters than her partner. Last month there were
suggestions that she had a ‘significant impact’ on the decision to phase out the controversial cull of Britain’s badgers.
The move came despite fears from the National Farmers’ Union that it would hit efforts to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
Miss Symonds is patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Association.