Carrie Johnson - time to resign

[PersonaNonGarter]

I realise she isn’t an elected politician, but Carrie Johnson gives me red mist. It’s a combination of her smug OW-ness and the flat refurbishment and general influence on the staff hires at Number 10. And the fact that she is so unaccountable.

YABU - it’s misfired anger, Boris is ultimately responsible for everything including his wife

YANBU - she has agency and influence and hiring an £££ interior designer was hardly Boris’s idea was it

Perhaps you should have stated you know Boris is responsible for himself and are also angry about what he has done but would like a thread to discuss his wife. It does read like you blame her for his actions. I don't like her either but it is nothing compared to the anger I feel at Boris for the latest party scandal.

I am confident in ascribing the lulu lytle decision to her - we’ve all seen the inside of his car and how he dresses. The man is oblivious to surroundings being a tip, and certainly wouldn’t have given a shiny shit about having the decorator du hour to do the flat up like her favourite nightclub. He is however responsible for agreeing / securing the funding in the way he did and for lying about it.

She may be a horrible person with undue influence on government, but the blame lies squarely on Johnson. He is the PM, he is responsible for his decision, if she has influence she shouldn’t have that is on him.

Is it a trend to word posts in ways that make no sense?

Resign from what?

@PersonaNonGarter

He is the Prime Minister. But there are other people in the political machine that we can have a view on. Is it ok to have a view on Dominic Cummings or Dominic Raab or David Frost? Because they are men?

Carrie Johnson is there, she’s affecting political discourse by her own choice - and we, other women, are free to comment on that.

Not because they're men, because they're employed/contracted by/to the Govt, not married to the PM.

@WhatScratch

It makes as much sense as blaming Dilyn the dog.

Why not try holding Boris Johnson responsible for his own behaviour. Have a look at his record as London mayor. Corruption, incompetence and arrogance is his bailiwick.

Well, apart from the fact that people who have worked in No 10 say that she does try to influence policy and she was also present at what No 10 said was a staff meeting (the garden party). On what level is this appropriate for the spouse of a PM? I don't recall Philip May sitting in on meetings or pushing his wife to influence policy based on his own interests. And we all saw the letter she wrote to the papers re the dog.

@TheKeatingFive

Thatcher, May, Brown, Major, Cameron, Blair all had spouses who were not "political" beyond support for their spouse and a clear alignment with values.

We have absolutely no idea how influential they were though.

Oh for sure and I've no doubt that all the previous PMs had some discussions around work with their spouses. If you live with a PM at the very least it would be a struggle if you were not aligned politically.

However whether you like the previous PMs or not, none of them were lazy and feckless and and their spouses had their own lives rather than rocking up to meetings in number 10 and influencing political appointments as reported by both fans and detractors of the PM

The spending is just bloody ridiculous and the behaviour of an entitled pair who both think they are above the rules.

It was a conflict between her and Cummings that led to his resignation, so she's not without influence

This. It was the power conflict of who had the closest ear to Boris that led to him being outsted. Since his resignation Cummings is going after Boris and I don't think we've seen the worse yet.

This is what politics is about and Carrie is very much a player.

Allegedly, she was 'sacked' from her former job (not the one working for the CP) for fiddling her expenses - claiming for taxis all over the place saying it was work when it was her own private trips.

@JinglingHellsBells that was the reason for her requested resignation from the party role. What was the job before that?

@Alondra

It was a conflict between her and Cummings that led to his resignation, so she's not without influence

This. It was the power conflict of who had the closest ear to Boris that led to him being outsted. Since his resignation Cummings is going after Boris and I don't think we've seen the worse yet.

This is what politics is about and Carrie is very much a player.

This. There would be no real reason for Carrie to be mixing with her husband's work colleagues and falling out with them if she kept out of government business. I am inclined to believe what Cummings says about the degree to which she tries to influence things. The blame is of course ultimately on Boris though. Part of his utter failure as a PM is the fact that he allows this to go on, takes numerous calls from her while at work etc. Imagine any other job where someone's spouse was trying to pull all the strings without actually working for the organisation. It's really not good.

@Viviennemary

I think she is a bad influence on him. He needed somebody to read the riot act when he wanted to go the garden party.

Wtf?

You think the PM of the country, a man in his fifties, has no agency at all?

Christ. Are there many women like you?

She can't resign from being wife of PM so I said YABU. Yes she is detestable. Unfortunately she will have a gilded life of privilege. It's the little people who will pay for Boris' mistakes.

I thought she was reprehensible before she married him. Her actions screamed social climber even before she got herself knocked up (I don't believe that that was his idea) and forced him to marry her. I don't think he wanted another wife.

Marrying him does rather seem to be it's own punishment. She could have done a lot better.

It’s ridiculous to say he’s a bad influence on her - they are as bad as each other imo and totally deserve each other. The fact that his older kids hardly speak to him anymore says it all and Carrie just typifies those women who think that their cheating scumbag husband won’t cheat on her just because she happens to be younger than his ex-wife. Apparently he already has cheated on her though, hence that fight that led to the police being called.

And it’s not misogyny to point out that she’s not a pleasant person - plenty of women aren’t.

@ZenNudist

She can't resign from being wife of PM so I said YABU. Yes she is detestable. Unfortunately she will have a gilded life of privilege. It's the little people who will pay for Boris' mistakes.

I thought she was reprehensible before she married him. Her actions screamed social climber even before she got herself knocked up (I don't believe that that was his idea) and forced him to marry her. I don't think he wanted another wife.

Marrying him does rather seem to be it's own punishment. She could have done a lot better.

Didn’t he say something about buyers regret recently? I think he was telling the truth. No man nearing 60 with 6 kids already under his belt wants to be dealing with toddlers and nappies.

He never meant to marry her but he would probably have been "advised" to as we can't have a single, shagaround PM. What fictitious nonsense is this - how do you know someone else's intentions?

There would be no real reason for Carrie to be mixing with her husband's work colleagues and falling out with them if she kept out of government business. I am inclined to believe what Cummings says about the degree to which she tries to influence things. The blame is of course ultimately on Boris though. Part of his utter failure as a PM is the fact that he allows this to go on, takes numerous calls from her while at work etc. Imagine any other job where someone's spouse was trying to pull all the strings without actually working for the organisation. It's really not good

Exactly. As far as I remember there has never been a UK PM spouse so involved in politics as Carrie. Most PMs in the UK have made clear boundaries into private and working/political life and the same goes for the rest of the world leaders, where the spouse appear in a few PR photographs usually in big world meetings but you never see them in any position of political influence at home.

She does seem to be involved in trying to influence him and not getting on with something else like the other PM spouses we’ve had over the last few decades (both m and f). Of course we don’t know much about what influence they had but it was between them - what’s different about Carrie is her making it obvious, having fallouts with advisors etc.

BUT the buck stops with Boris as he’s the one with the actual PM-ship and should have some standards and keep political and personal separate. It’s not just her - he basically let himself be dictated to by Cummings too. He has no integrity or sense of doing things appropriately as we can all see every day.

If a female PM’s spouse was being like this, she’d be blamed for allowing it. It’s Boris’s issue.

She is loving it! Him not so much.

I give it five years - sooner if he goes - before she is off.

dayswithaY
I feel sorry for Marina, his second ex-wife who was recovering from cancer when Boris and Carrie had that ridiculous boho woodland wedding like a pair of teenagers in love.

Marina Wheeler spoke to the Guardian about her cancer treatment in 2019 - she was diagnosed in May 2019 and given the 'all-clear' in August 2019. Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds were married in May 2021 - nearly 2 years later.

Parsley1234
Dreadful woman smug entitled and tone deaf she doesn’t appear very likeable and how she thinks she got the prize after he left his previous wife the QC with breast cancer she must be a complete self serving hard nosed twunt

Marina Wheeler separated from Boris Johnson in the summer of 2018 - her cervical cancer diagnosis came after she had obtained a decree nisi - but why let facts get in the way of a good story?

I thought she was reprehensible before she married him. Her actions screamed social climber even before she got herself knocked up (I don't believe that that was his idea) and forced him to marry her. I don't think he wanted another wife. You make him sound absolutely pathetic, he probably needs her to get dressed in the morning and put his bib on before breakfast. Sounds like he'd fall apart without her! Maybe she's doing the country a favour!

Should she be a good little wifey then and just gaze lovingly at her husband in photo shoots and then go home and bake cookies?

Would that be better?

🤦‍♀️

If she has has influence it is because Boris is a fuckwit who doesn’t do his homework and has no interest in policy. I find the Instagram content about dogs and toddlers irritating, but only because it is so obviously a fantasy that has nothing to do with marrying a con artist.

In the ‘Cheese and Wine’ garden photograph, Carrie is sitting with Boris, Dominic Cummings and Martin Reynolds.

She is only talking to her husband in the photograph - in her own garden - the other two men are having their own discussion and turned away from her. How long was she there for?

Background info on Carrie here - www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/what-you-need-to-know-about-prime-ministers-fiancee-carrie-symonds

I realise I used to live on the next road to her in Camberwell and we used to comment on the scruffy Toyota with parking tickets outside her house little realising that it belomnged to Johnson. As others have said the shambolic car is indicative of the man - how on earth did he get to be Prime Minister?