Prime Minister’s team were involved in removing story about Carrie Johnson

Mystery over vanishing story deepens

Downing Street has confirmed that members of the prime minister's team were involved in the withdrawal of a story about his wife Carrie Johnson. Number 10 denied Boris Johnson had been personally involved in the discussions.

On Saturday, the Times reported that Boris Johnson had tried to hire his now-wife as his £100,000-a-year chief of staff at the Foreign Office in 2018 - an idea that fell apart when one of his closest advisors learned of the idea.

Mysteriously, the scoop vanished from later print editions of the newspaper, and the article was subsequently expunged from online publication altogether, including a re-write by the MailOnline. The report had quoted an official from the Foreign Office, who is alleged to have quashed the appointment because the couple were having an affair. The Times article quoted one of Johnson's then-staffers source as saying: “An illicit relationship with Carrie was none of our business. Making her chief of staff was definitely our business.” “Our job was to protect him and we knew what was going on between them, and it would have been an insane risk to let him do it.” On Monday, a spokesperson for the prime minister refused to deny on-the-record that Johnson had attempted to hire his wife, but pointed to other denials issued over the weekend.

A spokesperson for Carrie Johnson said the claims were "totally untrue."

Related Links

• Rwanda: Death threats sent to 'lefty lawyers' unacceptable, Downing Street says
• Boris Johnson's ethics adviser details the 'impossible and odious position' PM left him in
• Read in full: No 10 publish Lord Geidt’s explosive resignation letter