Hours after Boris Johnson learned that he had secured a commanding lead in the race for Downing Street, his girlfriend Carrie Symonds was heading to Wembley Stadium to watch the Spice Girls’ comeback tour.
In private, the 31-year-old has joked to friends that she identifies with ‘Ginger Spice’ Geri Horner, who combined the acumen to propel the band to stardom with the mischievous streak that drove her to once pinch Prince Charles’s bottom.
Close friends agreed with the assessment as they gave The Mail on Sunday a fascinating insight into a woman poised to become Britain’s new ‘first lady’.
The intimate details of their life together are accompanied by touching family photographs tracing the life of the woman set to become the new chatelaine of No 10. They show Carrie as a toddler sipping orange juice with her mother, Josephine
In a series of revealing interviews, they told how:
Boris and Carrie are a perfect ‘love match’ who enjoy evening painting sessions and cycle rides;The couple intend to live together in No 10 if he is elected Tory leader and to marry after his divorce is finalised;Claims she calls him ‘Bozzie Bear’ and he refers to her as ‘Little Otter’ are ‘utter nonsense’;Carrie is determined to campaign on environmental issues and violence against women, regardless of whether he enters Downing Street;She is helping ensure that the notoriously chaotic Boris does not ‘drop the ball’ and has urged him to run a ‘clean and friendly campaign’.The intimate details of their life together are accompanied by touching family photographs tracing the life of the woman set to become the new chatelaine of No 10.
They show Carrie as a toddler sipping orange juice with her mother, Josephine, and the pair together again in 2009 when Carrie graduated from Warwick University with a first-class honours degree in theatre studies and history of art.
In another snap, perhaps a prelude to the future, Carrie sits at the Cabinet table in Downing Street during a meeting with the former Prime Minister David Cameron.
Those who know her best say that Carrie, a former director of communications for the Conservative Party, is playing a far greater role in Boris’s bid for power than many realise. She suggests ideas for his speeches and his weekly newspaper columns and has persuaded him to support a series of liberal issues, including campaigns against plastic pollution in the oceans and female genital mutilation.
Perhaps most importantly, however, friends say Carrie makes Boris, who is 23 years her senior, blissfully happy, and has brought a new sense of calm to his sometimes boisterous and restless nature.
The couple relax by spending their evenings painting together, a passion that Boris’s political hero Winston Churchill also enjoyed. Some of their paintings hang on the walls of her flat in South London.
They both also share a passion for cycling and, for her birthday in March, Boris bought Carrie a classic £645 hand-made Pashley bicycle complete with wicker basket on the handlebars.
The pair together again in 2009 when Carrie graduated from Warwick University with a first-class honours degree in theatre studies and history of art
While both are smitten, friends insist some of the more colourful stories about them are false. ‘Those stupid nicknames ‘Bozzie Bear’ and ‘Little Otter’ are utter nonsense,’ said one. ‘They’ve never called each other that. I know Carrie would find that incredibly cringeworthy.’
The couple met in 2012 when Carrie was seconded from Tory HQ to work on Boris’s campaign to be re-elected London Mayor. It is not known when their affair began, but they were spotted dining together at Rules restaurant in Covent Garden on Valentine’s Day last year.
Boris separated from his second wife Marina in September and is expected to propose to Carrie once his divorce is finalised.
That would set the scene for the first wedding involving an incumbent Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool married Mary Chester in 1822.
The couple currently divide their time between her London flat and home in Oxfordshire, but friends expect Carrie to move into No 10 should Boris win the leadership race. ‘Despite the age gap it is a proper love match,’ said one. ‘When they met it was very much a meeting of minds. Carrie is incredibly quick and funny. He found her brilliant. She is passionately pro-animal welfare and pro-environment, and Boris really loves that about her.’
Sources say Carrie’s ability to effortlessly combine the intense focus required to win a fiercely fought leadership campaign with a playful sense of fun has rubbed off on Boris, bringing a competency that his political operation once lacked. ‘She’s done an incredible job at keeping Boris on the ball,’ said another source.
In another snap, perhaps a prelude to the future, Carrie sits at the Cabinet table in Downing Street during a meeting with the former Prime Minister David Cameron
‘She’s always very chirpy and keeps spirits up, but also makes sure everything gets done and that he never drops the ball. She’s adamant that Boris runs a clean and friendly campaign and you’ll notice Boris is probably the only candidate who hasn’t taken a swipe at anyone else.
‘Lots of MPs want Boris to be the liberal mayor figure who won London twice and, with Carrie by his side, they feel reassured that he will
