Who was that woman with Rishi Sunak just now at the palace?!

[NewsJunki]

Is anyone watching the live news of Sunak going to meet the King? I just wondered who that woman was who was travelling with him and shook the hand of the man at the palace?! It wasn't his wife! The woman who got out the car looked like she was off on her commute or something! Carrying loads of random bags and wearing a puffa jacket!

FWIW, I’m a former senior official and I think she looks scruffy.

@DisgruntledApothecarist I've just read back those quotes and no I don't think I've been unkind! The woman isn't here you know! It's not like I'm actually talking to someone in person saying you are scruffy why are you wearing a puffa jacket!

You've missed the point of the original post anyway. It was a random thread asking who she was!!

Possibly/probably:

"The other senior name in the frame is Eleanor Shawcross, another former Treasury aide who also spent six years as George Osborne’s deputy chief of staff.
She was another brain of the Sunak leadership campaign, working on policy development, and could be handed the role as head of the policy unit or possibly joint chief of staff. She met her husband through the party, the chief executive of Next, Simon Wolfson, who also advised Osborne."

Be careful @Rainallnight or you'll be told you're unkind.

Oh yeah. 😘

I was expecting his wife to appear, instead a woman who clearly wasn't his wife appeared but was announced as being his wife.

The woman in question didn't appear to be very appropriately dressed for the occasion or the setting, that's all.

If the bloke pictured above had gone with him dressed like that I'd have said the same thing, but as least the BBC wouldn't have said he has the PMs wife.

So depressing the misogyny about what this person was wearing because they are a woman.

I really do not like the conservatives. But I support this woman in her right to not be defined by what she is wearing! Perhaps she is a senior civil servant who threw on a coat for the school run before work, mums can do important jobs too!

A bit of idle gossip about Tory politicians that have shat over us royally in the past few years that has turned into a torrent in the last one is harmless enough in the scheme of things and certainly better than rioting in the streets. Strangely I have no trenchant opinions about this mysterious bag lady and after reading the thread still have none.

And now you’re calling me crazy to try to minimise my comments which are true. It was bitchy. You’d have just asked who she was if that’s what you wanted to know. What was the point of adding the comments about her appearance if you just wanted to know who she was?

If you think calling someone scruffy isn’t bitchy, then that says a lot about you.

Then to not understand why a woman on a site mainly made up of women posters would have an issue with a poster commenting on a woman’s appearance negatively. Really?

It’s a public forum and I can comment on any thread I want to. Thankfully you don’t get to have a bitchy echo chamber.

I've just read back those quotes and no I don't think I've been unkind! The woman isn't here you know! It's not like I'm actually talking to someone in person saying you are scruffy why are you wearing a puffa jacket!

Faux disingenuousness after you've been rumbled fools no-one. And stop using exclamation marks instead of full stops, FGS.

@Foxhassmellysocks you've missed the original point I'm afraid. It was asking who this woman was and where was his wife. If it was a man dressed like that and they said that was the new PM's husband, and I knew the PM's husband to be a very elegant dresser then the question would have been the same!

About what they were wearing at the palace in front of the worlds media, not because they were a woman. If he's taken a male aid in jeans and a T-shirt I'd have thought the same. She's been highlighted because the BBC saw a dark haired woman and assumed it was his wife.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain and now my punctuation irks you?! It seems you are indeed the MN police today.

!!!!!!

If you think calling someone scruffy isn’t bitchy, then that says a lot about you

Oh please. They were meeting the King FFS! Yes there is a level of dressing I would describe as scruffy in this context, and no this does not make me an unkind person.

The bitchy bun fights are one of the unheralded joys of MN 🍿🍿

@vera99 “mysterious bag lady”

well thanks for that

Again, do you think your posts have been kind? Yes or no.

Yes I am beginning to think these posters just lurk about looking for an opportunity for a bun fight! I mean they could have found all sorts but instead it's calling someone scruffy that is the trigger!

Not just today, pet.

My point was more about how we all are slagging off the women.

She must be frigging boiling in that coat it’s 20 degrees in London isn’t it

I don’t think Rishi’s PA was meeting the King. He was.

This thread is exhausting.

Anyway, Mystery Woman looks a bit like Eleanor Shawcross who used to work at the Treasury with Sunak. So, there we go.

You’ve also referred to her as a ‘random woman’ as well as the scruffy comments and going on about her coat and bags. You’re clearly being negative and bitchy about her, not just wondering who she is.

It is an empirical fact - the person in that photograph is not dressed as convention would dictate for a representative of the government in that situation.

I think it’s fine to describe her as scruffy. She might be a political genius, but she still looks a bit of a mess, particularly in contrast to the others around her. Personally, if I’d turned up for work in my old coat and with all my papers in shopping bags, when I was told I was accompanying the boss to the palace, I would have quickly borrowed a colleague’s suit jacket/blazer and decanted my papers into a similarly borrowed receptacle. (‘Thanks, pal. Will get them back to you within the hour. Can I buy you a drink later?’ ) But perhaps this is because I am not a political genius. Equally, if my mind had been on more intellectual matters, I’m pretty sure one of my colleagues would have pounced on me as I was about to leave, yanked my puffa jacket off and thrown their blazer at me, to help me out.

It’s interesting and possibly revealing.

I am, however, appalled that the BBC said she was Rishi’s wife. It’s not a difficult thing to get right, is it?!