Questions are growing about a story that appeared in The Times newspaper, claiming that Boris Johnson planned to hand his then-girlfriend Carrie a £100k a year role. The story, which ran on page 5 of an earlier edition of The Times late last week, disappeared in later editions.
According to multiple reports, there were concerns “about the influence such a story could have on readers of The Times and the Daily Mail, given their base is largely right-leaning Brits. The story was quashed, and only resurfaced to much quieter fanfare later down the line,” according to the London Economic.
The story cited one of Johnson’s office staffers while the Prime Minister was still Foreign Secretary. The Times article quoted him as saying: “An illicit relationship with Carrie was none of our business. Making her chief of staff was definitely our business. Our job was to protect him and we knew what was going on between them, and it would have been an insane risk to let him do it.”
Another staffer was quoted in the article as saying that, apart from anything else, Symonds was “relatively inexperienced” and the feeling was she wasn’t the “right person” for the job.
Walters referred to three of Johnson’s aides – including Ben Gascoigne, now one of his deputy chiefs of staffs and a friend of Wheeler, threatened to resign over the proposed appointment.
It’s such a preposterous idea that it just has to be true …
Well, BJ paid the price for Carrie’s rejection as Chief of Staff - gold wallpaper, two babies and marriage …
My worry about him lies in his nature. It has so far sustained him well. But his innate untidiness, his lack of detailed application, his tendency to busk it and promise the earth with eye-catching phrases and a cavalier approach to spending when borrowing is going through the roof are almost calculated to land him in trouble in the longer run.
Worse still, it will land us, our children, grand-children and great-grandchildren - and perhaps even a fifth generation - with an awful tax bill.
We have enough round our necks now in trying to bring spending in line with income.
The grossly expensive HS2 rail project, now burrowing its way through the Chilterns, is only one example of the consequences of Boris’ addiction to the big project. He also has his eyes on a Thames international airport and a bridge or tunnel from Scotland to Northern Ireland.
This tendency to be very free with other people’s money is probably his one great threat. Already it has people doubting whether he is a real Conservative - doubts that are fed by a feeling that the green belt is under threat through talk of easing the planning system.
Back on topic, not every source mentions the fact that BJ was still married to Marina Wheeler when he tried to install his “floozie” as a Chief of Staff.
Downing Street contacted The Times before a story about Carrie Johnson was dropped by the paper, it has been confirmed.
An article in the first edition of Saturday’s paper claimed Boris Johnson wanted to make Carrie the Foreign Office chief of staff on a salary of around £100,000 while he was foreign secretary.
It is understood the pair were in a relationship at the time, although Johnson was still married to his previous wife, Marina Wheeler.
The Prime Minister is said to have raised possible new environmental roles for her in autumn 2020, either on the COP 26 summit or with the Royal Family.
It follows allegations he tried to make her his £100,000-a-year chief of staff two years earlier, when he was Foreign Secretary and she was his girlfriend.
Now sources say the PM wanted to get her a job as a green ambassador in the run-up to the global climate summit in Glasgow. They claim his second idea was to line her up as communications director for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Earthshot Prize.
The insiders suggest he wanted Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, who had previously been Prince William’s private secretary, to “take soundings”.
But the PM’s closest advisers were said to have vetoed both suggestions, warning either position could undermine his wife’s status as a private citizen.
Mrs Johnson was on maternity leave at the time from conservation charity Oceana, after having first child Wilf.
There is no suggestion she knew of the PM’s alleged conversations. She was said to have been in private talks at the time about joining the Aspinall Foundation, her current employer. Sources suggested her husband was not necessarily looking for a paid role for her but “something to keep her busy”.
No10 said: “The PM has never recommended Mrs Johnson for a government role or one as part of the Earthshot Prize.” But it did not deny the claim that he discussed the matter with Downing Street aides.
