Carrie Symonds

Symonds was born on 17 March 1988 to Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent, and Josephine Mcaffee (née Lawrence), a lawyer working for that newspaper.[2][3] Her paternal grandfather was John Beavan, Baron Ardwick (at one time editor of the Daily Herald and later, during the 1970s, a Labour Party MEP), and her paternal grandmother was Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist.[4][5]

Symonds was brought up by her mother in East Sheen, London, and between 1999 and 2006 attended Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent day school for girls. She went on to the University of Warwick, where she studied art history and theatre studies, completing her degree in 2009.[6][7]

In 2009, Symonds joined the Conservative Party as a press officer.[8] She worked at Conservative Campaign Headquarters,[9] and later campaigned for Boris Johnson in the 2010 London Conservative Party mayoral selection. She has also worked for Conservative MPs Sajid Javid (as a media special adviser) and John Whittingdale.[10]

Symonds became the Conservative Party's head of communications in 2018,[11] but left the position later that year,[2] taking up a job in public relations for the Oceana project.[12][10] It was reported that she was asked to leave her post as director of communications after sources claimed party chiefs had said her performance was poor, and questions were raised over significant unjustified expenses claims.[13][6] These accusations were, however, rejected by other sources as being a smear campaign based around rumours allegedly spread by Johnson's political strategist, Lynton Crosby.[14][15]

She has been described as a "passionate animal rights defender"[16] and is a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.[17]

Symonds was previously in a relationship with British political journalist Harry Cole.[20]

She reportedly began an affair with British politician Boris Johnson, then the Foreign Secretary, in 2018 while he was still married to his second wife, Marina Wheeler.[6][7] In July 2019, Johnson became prime minister and both he and Symonds officially moved into 10 Downing Street.[21][22][23][24] The following month, she was barred from entering the United States as her visa application was rejected due to a previous visit to Somaliland, which the US considers to be part of immigration-restricted Somalia.[25] On 16 August 2019, she made her first public appearance since entering 10 Downing Street, when she addressed what she called the "gigantic" climate crisis.[26][27]

Concerns over the influence of Symonds on the prime minister were raised in January 2020, when it came to light that Symonds received briefs from animal rights activists just before government came to pull a planned cull on badgers in Derbyshire.[16] An association representing farmers, the NFU, asserted that this meeting and Symonds' influence played a key role in the government ignoring scientific advice in favour of retaining the cull. According to The Guardian, a judicial review has been granted permission to examine how the decision was reached.[16]

On 29 February 2020, Symonds and Johnson announced that they became engaged in late 2019 and were expecting a baby in mid-2020.[28] Their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was born on 29 April 2020 at University College Hospital in London.[29] Symonds is a practising Catholic and had Wilfred baptised into the Catholic Church.[30]