Boris and Carrie Johnson are moving their planned July wedding party from Chequers to another location, sources have confirmed.
The decision was taken to move the party after Johnson resigned on Thursday and it emerged the couple had planned to host a delayed wedding bash at the prime minister’s country retreat.
The Johnsons had already sent save-the-date invitations to guests to the party at Chequers, the prime minister’s grace-and-favour home in Buckinghamshire, at the end of the month.
The plans for the wedding party at Chequers had led to accusations that Johnson was trying to delay his departure from No 10 until that date. But this was denied by sources close to Johnson, who said it was not a factor and that the party was being moved to another venue.
Just hours earlier, the newly installed education secretary, James Cleverly, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a new prime minister should let the couple have their wedding party at Chequers even if Johnson was gone by then.
Cleverly said: “I think if that is done by that point in time, I suspect it would be a rather generous action of the new prime minister to allow that to go ahead.
“Private functions like that do not impose a burden on the public purse … I think it’s churlish to be negative about two people who want to celebrate their marriage and their love for each other.”
The Johnsons married last year in a small ceremony with 30 guests because of Covid restrictions, but their spokesperson said at the time they planned to celebrate again in summer 2022. It is the third marriage for Johnson, who has two children with Carrie.
The ceremony last year at Westminster Cathedral was prepared in secret and guests celebrated in the Downing Street garden, with just one official photograph released.
Johnson’s critics in the Conservative party – including the former prime minister John Major – have urged him to go immediately and let his deputy, Dominic Raab, serve as a caretaker PM because of the lack of confidence his party has in him.
Carrie Johnson watched her husband’s resignation speech in Downing Street, carrying their daughter, Romy, in a sling. Their toddler son, Wilf, was waiting in the entrance hall to No 10.
