Carrie Johnson was 'sent on long taxi rides to keep her from meetings'

Boris’s campaign team booked Carrie Johnson’s taxis and ‘told drivers to take the longest route possible in the hope that the PM’s “interfering” future wife would miss meetings’

• No 10 insiders say Carrie Johnson was given taxis taking ‘longest possible route’
• ‘Controlling’ Mrs Johnson was allegedly sent on long and meandering journeys in a bid to sideline her during her then-boyfriend’s 2019 Tory leadership bid 
• Campaigners have painted picture of Mrs Johnson wielding huge power in No 10
• Others allege she was directly briefing the PM while he spoke on the telephone 

Carrie Johnson was sent on long and meandering taxi journeys to keep her from key meetings during her then-boyfriend Boris Johnson’s 2019 campaign, an extraordinary new book has claimed. 

Campaign insiders are said to have attempted to sideline the then Carrie Symonds during Mr Johnson’s successful Tory leadership bid.

They claim, in Lord Ashcroft’s First Lady: Intrigue At The Court Of Carrie And Boris Johnson, that she would be booked taxis that were instructed to take ‘the longest route possible’.

One recalls: ‘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.

‘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 bombshell claims were revealed on the same day that Mrs Johnson was accused of wielding huge power within Whitehall, having at points directly used her husband’s phone in a bid to ‘direct and control events’.

Others paint an extraordinary picture and allege that Mrs Johnson had Mr Johnson so under her thumb she was at times directly briefing the Prime Minister during his phone calls.

A spokesman for Carrie Johnson has said that Lord Ashcroft’s book is full of ‘vile fabrications’, while the Prime Minister has said he had been spun a tissue of lies by disgruntled former No 10 advisers. 

Reacting to the claims in Lord Ashcroft’s book today, friends of Mrs Johnson have described the claims as ‘misogynistic and cruel’. Mr Johnson is said to be furious at the perceived ‘hit job.’

And business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today dismissed fears that Mrs Johnson holds any ‘undue influence’ within Downing Street, saying the Prime Minister has his own ‘strong set of ideas’ after spending 25 years in politics. 

Carrie Johnson was sent on long and meandering taxi journeys to keep her from key meetings during her then-boyfriend Boris Johnson’s 2019 campaign, an extraordinary new book has claimed

The bombshell claims were revealed on the same day that Mrs Johnson (right) was accused of wielding huge power within Whitehall, having at points directly used her husband’s phone in a bid to ‘direct and control events’

Campaign insiders from 2019 portray a picture of chaos, and said Mrs Johnson’s continued involvement was a ‘nightmare’.

One, who worked directly on Mr Johnson’s leadership bid, said: ‘We’d spot the different ways things were written, because the style would change. We’d learn to spot when it was her writing the message.

‘So a text message would appear saying, for example, that there was a particular MP whose support we didn’t need or want. 

‘We realised Boris couldn’t have written the message because, the next day, Boris would contradict this.’ 

‘It was a nightmare,’ reports a separate source of Carrie’s involvement. ‘She had no ideas. She wasn’t prepared to roll her sleeves up and work hard, and yet she interfered all the time. This caused many problems and wasted a lot of very valuable time.’

It was even alleged that, on occasion, Mrs Johnson could be heard whispering prompts to Johnson while these phone calls were in progress.

The developments emerged alongside bombshell new claims that suggest Carrie Johnson forced out a rising star within the Tory party who was working with her then-fiancé Boris Johnson over fears she was ‘too attractive and intelligent’. 

Cambridge graduate Ellie Lyons, a one-time advisor to Boris Johnson during his leadership campaign, was reportedly dubbed ‘the sexy spad’ by a handful of people in Westminster and had impressed Mr Johnson during his campaign bid.

But one campaign source, quoted in Lord Ashcroft’s biography, said that Mr Johnson suddenly changed tack on her, urging his inner circle to ‘get rid’ at the behest of Carrie because Ms Lyons was ‘too attractive and intelligent’.

FRIENDS APPOINTED TO TOP GOVERNMENT JOBS: From far left: Best friend Henry Newman, appointed an aide to Boris: Allegra Stratton who became Boris’s No 10 press spokesman; and Josh Grimstone who now works for Michael Gove

… AND OTHERS WHO WERE FROZEN OUT. Discarded: From far left: Ellie Lyons, labelled as ‘bad news’; James Wharton, liked by Boris but rejected as ‘untrustworthy’ by Carrie; and Mimi Macejkova, replaced by a friend of Carrie

The Prime Minister is understood to believe that Lord Ashcroft (pictured at Tory Party Conference) has been spun a tissue of lies by disgruntled former No 10 advisers

‘Completely mesmerised’: Carrie embraces Boris after his speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2019

The source alleges the-then Tory leadership favourite was ‘being used by Carrie to do her dirty work’ and brought Ms Lyons’ political career to an abrupt end.

Ms Johnson’s orders allegedly came because she did ‘not want Ellie in No 10 because she’s too attractive’, another Tory source explained. Ms Lyons moved to private sector after the ordeal, but returned to the civil service last summer. 

In his new biography, Tory peer Lord Ashcroft claims Mr Johnson, 57, is ‘completely mesmerised’ by his 33-year-old wife and cuts a ‘lonely’ figure surrounded by her close friends who are now among his most influential aides.

The biography of Mrs Johnson advances the theory that faultlines in her relationship with the Prime Minister have had an impact on No 10, with one source describing it as ‘a Greek tragedy’.

Among Ms Johnson’s alleged scalps include Ellie Lyons, (centre) a one-time advisor to Boris Johnson during his leadership campaign, who was reportedly dubbed ‘the sexy spad’ by some in Westminster

Reacting to these claims on Sunday, one Johnson ally told the Sun: ‘This is just a misogynistic attack on someone who isn’t able to fight back. It’s just a way of damaging the PM by attacking her.

‘This is the mother of Boris’s children. I find this whole episode tawdry and despicable.’

Another ally has said: ‘To say Carrie is running the country is almost laughable – if it wasn’t so serious. It’s nothing but a hit job.’ 

The developments come as the Sunday Times today reported the PM’s wife has privately said that Mr Johnson should step down ‘for the sake of his family’. 

A friend of Mrs Johnson told the newspaper that she does not want him to resign, bur rather she ‘just wants to focus on her children’.

The Prime Minister has told friends he is furious about the book, First Lady: Intrigue at the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson, which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday.

A spokesman for his wife described the claims as ‘cruel allegations’ which were part of a ‘calculated attempt by bitter ex-officials to attack Mrs Johnson’. They added: ‘She is a private individual who plays no role in government.’ 

The Prime Minister is understood to believe that Lord Ashcroft has been spun a tissue of lies by disgruntled former No 10 advisers. 

But Ashcroft also refers admiringly to Carrie’s, ‘courage and determination,’ as evidenced in her instrumental role ensuring sex-offender Warboys stayed behind bars, in speaking openly of her own experience of a 2021 miscarriage and her work for animal protection, saying the complaints against her are about use of power without electoral accountability. 

Source: Read Full Article