With Boris Johnson’s advisers accusing his wife of having undue influence on his premiership, staff took steps to remove the ‘distraction’
There was one constant during the Johnson tenure: Carrie Symonds, or Carrie Johnson as she became halfway through their time in Downing Street. Carrie would be dragged into the press spotlight more than her predecessors, Philip May and Samantha Cameron. She was already a creature of Westminster, having been a special adviser to Sajid Javid and John Whittingdale, which partly explains why. Given this background, questions about her influence were inevitable.
Tensions emerged between the old guard of Johnson advisers and Carrie during the summer 2019 Tory leadership campaign, and spilled over into Downing Street. Self-interest on the part of the former camp, suspicious of the appearance of a new point of influence, may have been a driver. Whatever the cause, the rift was real.
Two claims were made by multiple figures engaged in the leadership campaign. One was put forward by four different people: that Carrie would sometimes send text messages from Boris’s phone. One source said that a particular campaign figure was dubbed the “text whisperer” for their apparent ability to tell whether the author was Johnson or Carrie. “It was just the tone. Boris is quite chatty in his messages, Carrie was blunt,” they added. Examples given included demands for comments to be issued rebutting press stories.
A second source was also convinced Carrie messaged from Johnson’s phone. A third campaign figure said: “You could always tell, because she used block capitals. He didn’t use block capitals. She used words that he didn’t use. You know, Boris has a very particular use of language and it’s very easy to see if he has written or somebody else has written it.” The fourth person said the habit was seen in Downing Street: “You could tell when she was texting on his phone. His normal messages are like anyone’s mum or dad texting… completely sporadic punctuation and the minimal amount of texting required.”