London: The frontrunner in the race to be the next British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was dealing with the wrong kind of headlines Saturday as a loud and noisy bust-up with his girlfriend in London was reported to the police.
Johnson, who is going head to head with UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party leadership race to replace Theresa May at Downing Street, was recorded by neighbours during what seemed like a screaming match with partner Carrie Symonds in south-east London Friday.
“The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour. Police attended and spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.
“There were no offences or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action,” the spokesperson added.
‘The Guardian’ reported that a neighbour had told the newspaper they heard a woman screaming followed by ‘slamming and banging’ during the alleged altercation.
In a recording made by the neighbour from their own flat, Johnson was reportedly heard refusing to leave the flat and telling the woman to ‘get off’ his laptop before there was a loud crashing noise.
Symonds is allegedly heard saying the Tory MP had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
Johnson’s spokesperson has refused to comment on the reports but it will lead to intense scrutiny over the former Cabinet minister’s colourful private life. His affair with Symonds, a communications chief for the Tory party, had been exposed last year resulting in his Indian-origin wife Marina Wheeler filing for divorce.
Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, is the daughter of former BBC journalist Charles Wheeler and his second wife Dip Singh.
During his time as the Mayor of London from 2008-2016, Johnson had often made references to his wife’s Indian roots to categorise himself as the ‘son-in-law of India’.
The couple are now in the process of splitting up after 25 years of marriage and four children, with 29-year-old Symonds expected to join Johnson, 55, at Downing Street if he wins the Tory leadership battle.
She was in the audience during Johnson’s leadership campaign launch June 12 and has been credited in the media with smartening up the leadership hopeful’s look.
Johnson continues to be the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader and the UK’s next prime minister, after holding on to a clear lead in several rounds of early voting by Conservative MPs.
He now faces the wider 160,000-strong Tory membership in hustings to convince them of his credentials over Jeremy Hunt. Members of the Conservative Party will receive their postal ballot papers between July 6 and 8, with the new leader expected to be announced in the week beginning July 22.
Tory MPs have completed voting to whittle an initial list of 10 candidates down to two. In the fifth and final round on Thursday, Boris Johnson came out on top with 160 out of the 313 votes cast and Hunt received 77 votes, beating UK environment secretary Michael Gove (75) to second place.
Hunt has pledged to give Johnson the ‘fight of his life’ in the race, which will include direct appeals to the Tory membership as well as televised debates.
PTI