Britain's First Lady Carrie Johnson ... Influence raises questions

Carrie Symonds Johnson, the publicly quiet wife of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is accused of behind-the-scenes maneuvering as scandals mount against Downing Street.

The looks of Carrie, 33, who married Boris in May and who is 24 years her senior, are somewhat rare.

She appeared during protocol ceremonies such as the G7 summit in Cornwall last June and also gave a speech on LGBT issues during last fall's Conservative Party meeting.

However, she has not given an interview since Johnson arrived in Downing Street in July 2019.

Despite this, British magazine Tatler presents her as "Britain's Most Powerful Woman".

Carrie Johnson found herself at the center of public and critics' attention as she began to question her role in a series of scandals that weakened the conservative prime minister.

The most sensitive of these scandals relate to parties in Downing Street during the lockdown to combat the outbreak of Covid-19 and in the couple's private apartments, whose costly renovation has sparked controversy.

And a spokesperson for her quoted her as saying that she does not play "any role in government", after it emerged that some pages of the caustic content were intended to be talked about in a book that conservative politician Michael Ashcroft will publish at the end of March.

For his part, Ashcroft considers that "Carrey's behavior is preventing the prime minister from running the country with the effectiveness that voters deserve."

Criticisms of a 'misogynistic nature' -

Carrie Johnson believes the accusations may have been made up by former 'advisers'.

All eyes are on former adviser Dominic Cummings, now a sworn enemy of Boris Johnson, and whose ouster from Downing Street is attributed to Carrie Johnson over internal conflicts.

Even before this book, Carey had been accused of influencing some of Boris Johnson's decisions, including decisions on the selection of advisers and on topics that mattered to her, such as animal protection.

"Some of the criticisms (Carrie Johnson) are misogynistic, but she is a political figure (...) and we don't have the classic methods to hold her accountable," Ash Sarker of the left-wing Novara Media said on Sky News.

Carrie Johnson is the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent, and Josephine McAfee, a former lawyer.

She grew up in southwest London and attended private school before studying theater and art history at the University of Warwick.

Carrie Johnson began working for the Conservative Party in 2010 as marketing director for former Representative Zack Goldsmith.

She joined the campaign to re-elect Boris Johnson as mayor of London in 2012.

The woman who later became Johnson's third wife held several positions within the Conservative Party, until she became the party's communications director, before leaving her position in 2018.

Animal Protection -

She later joined the marketing team for The Nature Conservancy Oceana before entering the Aspinal Foundation last year.

The story of Carrie and Boris began in 2018, when the latter's marriage to his ex-wife, Marina Wheeler, was unstable.

When he took office in July 2019, Boris Johnson became the first British Prime Minister to enter Downing Street without being married since Edward Heath in 1970. Carrie Symonds was not at the time living in Downing Street.

When he finalized his divorce in 2020, Boris Johnson became the first prime minister to marry during his tenure, in a secret ceremony in May 2021.

And they had their first child in April 2020, they named him Wilfred, and a sister in December 2021 they named Romy, so Johnson has seven children in total, four of them from his ex-wife Marina Wheeler and a fifth child from another relationship.

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