An explosive account of life at No. 10 has shed light Boris Johnson‘s tantrums’ and perceived need for ‘household training’.
Supervising the prime minister during the pandemic was akin to being a “nanny,” his former senior aide claimed.
Cleo Watson has written exclusively in Tatler on her experience working for the conservative leader.
Mr Johnson is said to have faced strict rules and orders during the height of the covid outbreak.
A special ‘puppy gate’ has been created to enroll the prime minister after he was ‘pinged’ by contact tracing, Ms Watson claims.
She wrote: “The Prime Minister himself has undergone quite a bit of toilet training. Like many, he was “pinged” a few times and insisted on working from his downstairs office while isolated.
“Soon he had to put up chairs as barriers in the doorway, because he couldn’t resist stepping over the threshold into our adjoining room to look over his shoulders at what people were working on.
So the first ministerial “puppy gate” was created. He knelt on the chairs, his elbows over the top, like a big unruly golden retriever, howling for attention.’
Ms Watson’s account of life at No. 10 during the pandemic also touches on matters closer to home.
She observed Carrie’s “pure courage” in anticipation of news about her husband’s health after he contracted Covid-19 and the “out-of-body experience” she herself felt as she waited for updates.
Ms Watson was recruited to join Mr Johnson’s cabinet by… Dominic Cummingsanother former aide to the Prime Minister.
As the couple’s relationship soured, the consequences soon hit Ms. Watson.
“I can’t look at you anymore because it reminds me of Dom,” she says the Prime Minister told her.
In her Tatler article, the former assistant added that she was compared to “an ugly old lamp” left over from a failed marriage.
Ms Watson had participated in the Vote Leave campaign and in Theresa Maybefore being called up to join Mr Johnson’s cabinet.
While her role as a special advisor sounded “fancy,” she equated it more with “nanny.”
She used a “teapot pose” to instruct Mr. Johnson to perform tasks such as cleaning up his dog Dilyn’s poop.
The prime minister reportedly had to be ordered to pick up his dog’s feces after he used the carpet of an office space as a toilet.
“I alternated between stern finger-wagging and calming words,” Ms Watson wrote, adding that “tantrums” during the pandemic were not uncommon for the prime minister.
The former assistant’s Tatler piece was pre-written the release of a new television show that will portray life at number 10 during the pandemic.
This England stars Kenneth Branagh as Prime Minister, Ophelia as Carrie and Andrew Buchan as former Health Minister Matt Hancock.
The series follows Mr Johnson’s early months as the nation’s leader and delves into the beginning of the pandemic.
It will also spotlight his tumultuous personal life and the aftermath of Brexit.
This England will be broadcast later this year, after which a replacement for the prime minister has probably been found.
The competition between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak gets smaller for September, when a winner in the race for No. 10 is announced.
Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace is one of the latest prominent Tories to give their views on the remaining candidates.
He made the comments during a hustings in Leeds in support of Mrs Truss.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak was accused of “walking out the door” of Mr Johnson’s cabinet.
“I don’t have the luxury as Secretary of Defense to just walk out the door — I have a role to play in keeping this country safe,” Wallace said.
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