Members of the Prime Minister's team intervened after a newspaper report said he wanted to hire Carrie Johnson for a Foreign Office job, Downing Street has confirmed. Boris Johnson had sought to appoint his now wife, who was known as Carrie Symonds at the time, as chief of staff when he was Foreign Secretary, early copies of The Times on Saturday stated.
However, later editions of the newspaper did not include the story, which had previously been reported in Lord Ashcroft's biography of Mrs Johnson. No10 sources said the story was "grubby and discredited", while Mrs Johnson said the claim was "totally untrue", the Mirror reports.
An official spokesman for the Prime Minster confirmed that members of Mr Johnson's team spoke to The Times before and after the story's publication, but added the PM himself had not been involved. He said: "I think my political colleagues over the weekend made clear that the story is not true, as has Mrs Johnson's spokesperson."
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"We were approached before publication, that's when we spoke to them then. I think we spoke to them after publication as well."
When asked if the PM had talked to the editor of the newspaper lately, the spokesman said: "I don't believe so."
The story was built upon a claim in Lord Ashcroft's book 'First Lady', whereby Mr Johnson's allies discouraged the PM from appointing Ms Symonds in the position. At the time, Mr Johnson was still in a marriage with Marina Wheeler, although the couple broke up later that year.
Mrs Johnson moved into Downing Street with Boris Johnson when he became Prime Minister in 2019 before getting married to him. They have two children together.
Speaking to the Guardian, a spokeswoman for Mrs Johnson said the claims were "totally untrue". According to the Daily Mirror, The Times declined to comment.
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