Could this be the fittest ever occupant of Number 10?
No, not Boris’s new love, but the Brexiteer himself who’s leaner and healthier than ever – thanks to the formidable woman who could join him there
SHE is the woman credited with inspiring Boris Johnson to adopt a new leaner, healthier look ahead of another tilt at Downing Street. And as this arresting holiday snap of Carrie Symonds shows, she is also in fantastic shape.
Taken on the couple’s recent break to Italy’s Amalfi Coast, the photo was shared with Carrie’s Instagram followers and captioned: ‘Positano. Sunshine, swimming, aperols and lots and lots of pasta.’
The former Tory Party communications chief, 31, is responsible for what friends call ‘Boris’s renaissance’. But it is not simply his waistline and unruly blond mop that she has tamed. Gone – almost – is his buffoonery and bumbling. Imbued with a clearer sense of purpose, Mr Johnson – a frontrunner to replace Theresa May – has been transformed, according to their friends.
And should he make it to the top, Miss Symonds could well
‘She is dynamic, fun and incredibly clever’
become 10 Downing Street’s youngest and most glamorous ‘First Lady’ yet.
In January, it was reported that Mr Johnson, 54, was so enamoured of his new girlfriend that he wished to make her his third wife.
The leading Brexiteer and his second wife, barrister Marina Wheeler, announced last September that they were divorcing after 25 years.
A close friend told The Mail on Sunday how Miss Symonds had given Mr Johnson ‘a second life’, adding: ‘And it’s not true that she broke up his marriage. That had been dying for years. Carrie is incredibly dynamic, incredibly fun, incredibly clever – a fantastic combination of all the things you’d want in a person.
‘She’s a very good strategist – one of those women who gets stuff done. She has got Boris off his behind and, under her command, all the issues that made him such a shambles when he went for the leadership in 2016 have gone away.
‘He’s lost weight, got a new haircut, isn’t drinking too much and the old lazy complacency has gone too.’
While in fashionable Positano, where the houses look like coloured sugar cubes, the couple were pictured strolling along Fornillo beach, described as ‘a little hidden secret’ and a ‘slice of paradise’. The MP’s relationship with Miss Symonds surfaced last autumn and they spent New Year together at her family’s Greek hideaway.
Around this time, the former Foreign Secretary admitted ‘carting around 16 and a half stone’. But 2019 brought a new diet. By giving up late-night chorizo and cheese binges, he lost 12lbs in two weeks.
He’s also sworn off alcohol, claiming to be ‘guzzling water’ when he goes to parties.
Describing his diet, Mr Johnson wrote: ‘I breakfast like some Georgian hermit on porridge with a luxury sprinkling of nuts.’
And comparing his recent weight loss with Brexit, he said: ‘We know that we have to get ready to be lighter on our feet and more agile, if we are to take advantage of all the freedoms we will gain: the freedom to innovate, the freedom to regulate in the interests of UK firms, the freedom to open up new markets around the world to British goods and services.’