A little dear... for Downing Street’s Gazelle
SHE described herself as Boris Johnson’s ‘nanny’ during her time in Downing Street.
But the former Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff now has a real baby to occupy her time – one who appears to be proving less of a handful than Boris.
Cleo Watson, nicknamed ‘the Gazelle’ in political circles because of her long legs, was spotted pushing a pram around the streets of North London last week after recently having her first child.
The statuesque 35-year-old swapped her glamorous Westminster wardrobe for dressed-down comfort, wearing a black puffer jacket, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, and scraped her hair back in a loose bun.
She smiled and chatted to a friend as they strolled, with no sign that the newborn was giving them any trouble.
That must have felt a world away from her days at No10. A protege of the PM’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings, Cleo worked at the heart of Government in 2019 and 2020, as the pandemic was unfolding.
In an interview with society magazine Tatler in 2022, she lifted the lid on working with Boris, describing him as ‘a great unruly golden retriever’ who required ‘a fair amount of housetraining’ over Covid protocols. This included barricading him in an office when he was forced to self-isolate.
She added, witheringly, that her role ‘sounds fancy but a lot of the time I was much closer to being Boris’s nanny’. That led to attending a No10 party while Covid restrictions were in place, for which she was fined.
Since leaving the civil service, Cleo has channelled her political experience into a ‘bonkbuster’ novel, Whips. Described as ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey meets Prime Minister’s Questions’, it tells of the sexual escapades of fictional Westminster politicians.
Mr Johnson reportedly quipped at Cleo’s leaving do that ‘Government’s loss will be erotic literature’s gain’.
The book, which follows three female friends battling for a foothold in the male-dominated world of politics, is the first in a trilogy.
It was announced last year that it would be made into a TV series by a production company owned by Lord Of The Rings star Andy Serkis, which Cleo said was her ‘wildest dream’ coming true.
Unlike her fictional protagonists, Cleo is happily married to family law barrister Tom Haggie. And while there may have been no nappies to change in Downing Street, it seems her babysitting duties might today be far less onerous.
‘Government’s loss will be erotic literature’s gain’