By Tony O’Reily
Carrie Sanders, the wife of Boris Johnson, calls a lot of the shots in Downing Street, according to a biography published by Carrie Johnson.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Lord Ashcroft said his research had suggested that the prime minister’s wife had originally been just a fling for the prime minister, but developed into a full blown relationship when his wife announced she would be divorcing him.
Lord Ashroft, who claims to have conducted a lot of research as part of the biography, says Carrie Johnson has been preventing Mr Johnson “from leading Britain as effectively as the voters deserve”, as his book suggested that the prime minister’s wife has been calling a lot of the shots in Downing Street.
According to the biography, ministers have on occasions strategically kept her away from important decision making meetings after they realized how much influence she had on the prime minister. She often influenced the prime minister to radically change his mind on some occasions,
‘It got to the point where members of the team booked taxis for her if there was a meeting that she was supposed to attend,’ Lord Ashcroft quotes one source as stating.
‘The driver would be instructed to take the longest route possible to wherever the meeting was being held so that she would miss it. It sometimes worked.’
The prime minister’s wife apparently took a dislike to some members of Boris Johnson’s campaign team, including ab Ellie Lyons, who had worked as a researcher before becoming a special adviser to Gavin Williamson when he was Chief Whip.It wasn’t long before the prime minister was calling for Ellie to be dumped from the team, despite being a useful contributor to the campaign.
Sources told Lord Ashcroft that Carrie Johnson did not like Ellie because she was intelligent and attractive and she did not like people who were more attractive than her. Anybody disliked by Carrie Johnson would suffer ig consequences, according to the source,
Ashroft claims in his post that colleagues were ‘aghast’, after Johnson originally appointed Sanders as chief of staff, concluding that she lacked the competence to handle the role and it would have disastrous consequences.
Biographer: Lord Ashcroft Image:Conversation.com
Among other things, the book serialized in The Daily Mail also alleges that Mrs Johnson pushed for the luxury redecoration of the Downing Street flat they live in, and that she was key in the decision over evacuation of animals from the Nowzad charity from Kabul.
Responding to the claims in the book, Health Secretary, Sajid Javid said Lord Ashcroft’s claims are “sexist, undignified and unfair”.
Asked if this is misogyny, the health secretary replied: “Yes, yes it is. It is sexist.”
“I think the partners of politicians should be off limits,” he added.
“Why would you go after, attack the partners of politicians? By all means go after the politicians, but why their wives, their husbands, their partners?”
He continued: “This is just about going after an individual…I actually do think there is sexism involved in this.
“And I just think doing this, in this case going after Carrie Johnson, is undignified, is unfair, and it is just wrong.”
In a statement at the weekend, Mrs Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters: “Yet again Mrs Johnson has been targeted by a brutal briefing campaign against her by enemies of her husband.
“This is just the latest attempt by bitter ex-officials to discredit her. She is a private individual who plays no role in government.”
Mr Javid said the statement is “absolutely correct”.
“She was my special adviser, and she was an excellent special adviser. But she is not in government in any way – she has no formal role in government – to the extent she would have anything to discuss with her husband to do with government would be any different to anyone before her,” the health secretary said.
“So why is she different to anyone who came before her as a partner of the prime minister?”