Who will foot the bill for Boris and Carrie’s Chequers wedding party?

Questions about how Boris Johnson and Carrie would pay for a lavish wedding party at Chequers quickly circulated in Westminster yesterday after it emerged the Prime Minister ‘wants to cling onto power long enough to host a belated bash at his official residence’ later this month.

The Johnsons have reportedly planned a big party at the grace-and-favour country home to mark their marriage at the end of July. 

However, The Telegraph reported that one Tory MP said: ‘It will take the PM over a year to save up for the wedding.’ 

Boris yesterday announced his decision to step down amid a sea of ministerial resignations off the back of several scandals, but said he intends to stay on as caretaker leader until a suitable replacement is found, meaning he will likely still be PM by the time the party rolls around. 

Carrie, who entered No. 10 as Boris’ girlfriend and leaves as his wife and the mother of two of his children, smiled encouragingly as the Prime Minister announced he was stepping down, admitting: ‘No one is indispensable’. 

During his speech, Boris acknowledged the sacrifices made by his wife and family, saying: ‘I want to thank Carrie and my children and all my family, who have put up with so much for so long.’

The couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral in front of just a handful of guests in May 2021. 

But their plan to use a grace-and-favour country home to host their delayed wedding party even as Johnson prepares to depart Downing Street has further angered already disgruntled Conservatives.

One Tory source told The Mirror: ‘It beggars belief that even after all the criticism Johnson has faced regarding integrity and probity, one of the reasons he is staying is to have his wedding party at Chequers.

‘It’s a national asset not his personal home. The Johnsons should do the decent thing and find a different venue.’

A second source said: ‘It’s crass if it goes ahead.’ 

The pair also have some work cut out for them when it comes to the guest list for their lavish do.

Their save-the-date cards went out last year, but given that a host of Boris’ Conservative MPs have called for his resignation in recent weeks and declared they do not have faith in his ability to lead the nation, several invitees may soon find out their presence at the wedding bash is no longer desired.

A Downing Street source said: ‘The party is still going ahead, but the guestlist will be a headache.

‘Boris and Carrie sent the ‘save the date’ cards last year but obviously recent developments mean a few of the people they sent them to would not now be as welcome as they once were.’

Mrs Johnson, a former Conservative Party communications chief, re-wore a £325 red L.K. Bennett dress for the occasion today and held her daughter Romy in a £95 BabyBjörn baby carrier. She finished her outfit with £90 red slingbacks from Dune.

It marks the first time Romy’s face has been seen. The couple have previously only shared photos of their daughter, who was born in December, taken from behind, and Boris is known to be private with his family.

Yesterday, Romy was wearing a a pair of bright bird-printed trousers and had a bright yellow bow pinned to her brown curly hair. 

At one point Carrie leaned down to plant a kiss on her daughter’s head and smiled as the little girl took in the sights and sounds of the busy scene.

The hands-on mother, who last month brought her daughter along to the G7 summit, looked relaxed despite the gravity of the situation. The couple also share a son Wilfred, two, but he was not present. 

Boris Johnson finally announced his resignation yesterday admitting ‘no-one is indispensable’ – but is lining up a ‘unity Cabinet’ as he battles to stay in Downing Street for months longer.

The Prime Minister tried to sound an upbeat tone as he confirmed that his time in office is coming to an end.

Standing in front of the traditional podium and watched by wife Carrie, baby Romy and close aides, Mr Johnson pointed to his achievements since winning the huge landslide – such as the vaccine rollout, Brexit and coming to the aid of Ukraine.

He said his message to voters who delivered his 2019 landslide was ‘thank you for that incredible mandate’, adding the ‘reason I have fought so hard’ was because he felt it was his ‘job’ to deliver what he promised. 

‘I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks,’ he said.

Mr Johnson blamed ‘powerful herd instinct’ for his ousting, saying: ‘At Westminster the herd instinct is powerful, when the herd moves, it moves.

‘And my friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.’

Mr Johnson paid tribute to his family for ‘all they have put up with’, in a nod to the succession of scandals that have blighted his premiership.

‘Our future is golden,’ he finished.

No10 had appealed for Conservative MPs to come and watch the speech in the street, but there only seemed to be a small crowd present.

Mr Johnson admitted defeat in the wake of a shattering intervention from Nadhim Zahawi, who was only appointed on Tuesday night following Rishi Sunak’s departure. He told Mr Johnson that his situation is ‘not sustainable’.

A No10 source said Mr Johnson has spoken to Tory 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and agreed to stand down, with a new Tory leader set to be in place by the party conference in October.

A spokeswoman said the PM will ‘make a statement to the country’, which is due around 1pm.

However, at the same time Mr Johnson has set about rebuilding his Cabinet, making Greg Clark the new Levelling Up Secretary and James Cleverly the Education Secretary. Robert Buckland is returning as Welsh Secretary, and Shailesh Vara takes over as Northern Ireland Secretary.

Kit Malthouse becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Mr Clark was in the Cabinet under Theresa May but stepped down when Mr Johnson took over, and Mr Buckland was axed as Justice Secretary in a reshuffle last year. Mr Vara was previously a Northern Ireland minister but has been out of government.

The others are long-standing allies promoted from other jobs.

The PM’s resignation announcement will effectively fire the starting gun on what looks set to be a chaotic leadership battle. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – expected to be a candidate – is cutting short a visit to Indonesia to return to the UK.

However, it is far from clear that Mr Johnson staying on until October – more than two months – will be acceptable to Tory MPs. More than 50 government members have resigned, and there will be questions over whether they can simply be reappointed, or would even agree to that. There are rumours that Mr Johnson still wants to push key policies such as tax cuts.

Keir Starmer threatened to call a Parliamentary confidence vote and try to force a general election if Mr Johnson does not leave immediately.

‘He needs to go completely. None of this nonsense about clinging on for a few months,’ he said.

George Freeman, who announced he was resigning as science minister this morning, said Mr Johnson must apologise to the Queen and advise her to call for a caretaker PM.

‘Boris Johnson needs to hand in the seals of office, apologise to Her Majesty and advise her to call for a caretaker prime minister,’ he said. ‘To take over today so that ministers can get back to work and we can choose a new Conservative leader to try and repair the damage and rebuild trust.’

A former minister told MailOnline: ‘We need to be rid of the Johnson poison as quickly as possible.’

What next for Carrie Johnson? As Boris quits, how his third wife has gone from the first Downing Street girlfriend to a mother-of-two with serious influence and style credentials – so, could a political career be on the cards?

Boris Johnson has announced that he will finally quit after a slew of high profile resignations and damning statements from even his most loyal allies brought his premiership to its knees. 

The resignation will impact not only his life but the life of his family, most notably his third wife Carrie Johnson, 34, who made history when she became the first girlfriend of a Prime Minister to officially live in Downing Street. 

Carrie, a former Conservative Party communications chief, was simply ‘Miss Symonds’ when she and Boris first shacked up together in 2019. 

The couple have since welcomed two children together, Wilfred, now two, and daughter Romy, who was born in December last year. 

The Johnson children have been raised in No. 11 Downing Street, traditionally the Chancellor’s grace-and-favour flat but one that was commandeered by the Prime Minister because it offered his young family more space. 

Mrs Johnson – she and Boris wed in a low-key wedding in May 2020 – has embraced the role of ‘first lady’, joining Mr Johnson at international summits and campaigning for causes close to her heart. 

The conservationist, who has been accused of being at the centre of drama at No. 10, has also made headlines with her sustainable wardrobe, often choosing to rent dresses for even the most high profile engagements. 

But what next for Carrie Johnson? Here, a look back at her time at No. 10 – and what the future might hold… 

A CAREER IN POLITICS

Mrs Johnson, a former Conservative Party communications chief, found herself making headlines when she was romantically linked to Mr Johnson in 2019, just months after the announcement of his separation from second wife Marina Wheeler. 

The public relations expert had been in the so-called Westminster Bubble for most of her remarkably ascendant career, a high-point being when she was made head of party PR aged just 29.

Carrie joined the Tory party media machine in 2009, first as a press adviser, then head of broadcast at Conservative campaign headquarters ahead of the 2015 general election. 

Her association with Mr Johnson dates back to the early years, having worked on his successful re-election bid at City Hall in 2012.

During her husband’s years in office she remained an influential figure. 

Carrie, once described as the ‘most powerful woman in Britain’, and was at one point branded Boris’ de facto chief of staff.

Miss Symonds’s ‘unelected and unaccountable’ role in Government is ‘damaging to democracy,’ Nic Conner, who worked with Miss Symonds on the Brexit campaign, said in February 2021. 

He told the Daily Mail that he has no grudge against the former director of Tory communications and was not being sexist, but is concerned she is acting unconstitutionally as friends are hired and rivals fired inside No 10.

Mr Conner said: ‘In light of my experience working with Carrie Symonds, I am deeply concerned that she should have any role in governing the country without authority or accountability.

‘Anyone holding so much unelected power, and who cannot be removed, is not only unconstitutional but is damaging to British democracy.’

Mr Conner’s comments came after the conservative think tank, the Bow Group – of which he is a research fellow – called for an independent inquiry into the role of Mrs Johnson within government.

Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney added: ‘No romantic partner of the PM has ever involved themselves to this degree. It’s completely unjustifiable in a modern democracy, and calling me or the Bow Group sexist doesn’t change that.’

The most prominent casualty of Miss Symond’s alleged influence was Mr Johnson’s right-hand man Dominic Cummings, who left in November 2020 after clashing with her.

Mr Cummings’s ally, communications chief Lee Cain, soon followed him out of the door amid claims that Mirs Johnson was calling the PM 20 times a day, and had been nicknamed ‘Princess Nut Nut’ by her detractors.

A spokesman for Mrs Johnson declined to comment on the allegations against her at the time they were originally published in the Daily Mail.

Carrie was also reportedly behind Sajid Javid’s appointment as Health Secretary. Cummings spoke out to claim Mrs Johnson, who was once a special adviser to Mr Javid during his tenure as Communities Secretary, engineered the move. 

The PM’s wife is even said to have had a hand in policy. Boris has championed the UK becoming Net Zero in terms of emissions by 2050, under a swing to green advocacy said to have been driven by his wife. 

Carrie, who has put on chummy displays with everyone from Joe Biden to Brigitte Macron, might well want to put her experience at the very heart of British politics to use by pursuing a career in her own right. 

It is difficult to imagining this happening any time soon, but Mrs Johnson has proved herself a force to be reckoned with and should definitely not be counted out. 

A FORAY INTO FASHION 

Carrie Johnson has championed a more ‘sustainable’ approach to fashion during her years in Downing Street, stepping out in rented dresses and pieces from independent British labels. 

The 34-year-old, who is a fan of printed midi dresses and chic power suits, even remained true to this low impact approach to fashion at major global events like the G7 summit where she has worn rented pieces from the likes of The Vampire’s Wife and Amanda Wakeley. 

On other occasions she has re-worn pieces from her wardrobe, like the £85 fuschia dress from & Other Stories which she teamed with a John Lewis hat and Michael Kors shoes for the Platinum Jubilee. 

Carrie favours online rental service My Wardrobe HQ. It was through the website that she hired her wedding dress, a creation by Greek designer Christos Costarellos which bought new would cost £2,830, but she borrowed for £45 a day.

Given her evident love of fashion, it is possible Carrie might consider exploring it as a post-Downing Street career. 

She could turn to fellow former PM’s wife Samantha Cameron for advice. 

Sam Cam, who served as Creative Director at British accessories brand Smythson of Bond Street, from 1997 until May 2010, launched her own clothing label, Cefinn, after she and husband David left No. 10. 

RAISING TWO CHILDREN

Fortunately for Carrie and Boris, the move out of No. 11 is unlikely to cause any major disruption for their two young children, who are too young to attend nursery. 

It remains to be seen where the couple will set up home as a family once they move out of Downing Street but Boris and Carrie own a £1.3million house in Camberwell.

Or it is possible they could choose to leave London for more space in the country. 

Wilf – or Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson in full – was named after Mr and Mrs Johnson’s grandfathers and partly in tribute to two doctors, Nick Hart and Nick Price, who helped save Mr Johnson’s life when he was in hospital with Covid in 2020. 

The two-year-old, who has inherited his father’s mop of blonde hair, is said to loves cars and animals, especially the family’s Jack Russell-cross Dilyn. 

He has already enjoyed a glittering life as the son of the Prime Minister, meeting Joe and Jill Biden on a Cornwall beach at last year’s G7. 

Meanwhile Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson, who was born at University College London hospital on December 9, was also named after close family members.

Mrs Johnson explained the choice of name: ‘Romy after my aunt, Rosemary. Iris from the Greek, meaning rainbow. Charlotte [after] Boris’s late mum whom we miss so much.’

In 2021, Mrs Johnson had a miscarriage, which she said left her heartbroken, before becoming pregnant with Romy. When she announced the pregnancy last year, she said she and her husband were ‘hoping for our rainbow baby this Christmas’.

A ‘rainbow baby’ is the term given to a child born after a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.

Last month, Romy joined her parents on a Commonwealth visit to Rwanda before making the trip to Germany for the G7 summit. 

Boris and Carrie have chosen to keep their children out of the spotlight and have only shared photos taken from behind. 

SAYING GOODBYE TO THEIR DESIGNER HOME

Perhaps one of the biggest difficulties for any outgoing PM’s wife is saying goodbye to the place they have called home. 

In the case of Mr and Mrs Johnson, it also means closing the door on a rather pricey – and controversial – interior design project. 

The couple, who share one-year-old son Wilfred and are expecting a second child together, spent £90,000 refitting the grace and favour apartment at No.11, which reportedly looked like a ‘John Lewis nightmare’ after Theresa May’s residency. 

They turned to society interiors guru Lulu Lytle for help, thrusting her into the centre of a debate over the eye-watering cost of the makeover, and who paid for it. 

Lytle is the founder of Soane Britain, a company offering clients wall-to-wall luxe with a promise of bringing ‘joie de vivre’ into the home – for a hefty price. A single rattan light can cost £7,200, while a desk can be more than £10,000.

Money was at the centre of the backlash following the news Lytle had been brought in to redesign Downing Street, with critics questioning why the Johnsons needed such an expensive makeover, as well as, more importantly, how it had been funded.

At one point it was thought the works cost as much as £200,000, but official documents later revealed the figure to be less than £90,000, with £30,000 from his publicly funded allowance and an additional £58,000 settled privately.

The refurbishments to the flat in No 11 sparked sustained scrutiny of Mr Johnson’s finances, with the works vastly exceeding the £30,000 annual limit afforded to the Prime Minister.

Conservative Party accounts published in August revealed its central office provided a ‘bridging loan’ of £52,802 to cover the works after being invoiced by the Cabinet Office in June last year.

The party was ‘reimbursed in full’ in October by Lord Brownlow, a former vice-chairman of the party who has made more than £3million in donations over the years.

Mr Johnson then ‘settled the costs’ incurred by the Conservative peer in March.

Three different reviews and reports were launched into the funding, one each by the Electoral Commission and parliamentary commissioner for standards, while the Prime Minister announced his new independent adviser on ministerial interests Lord Geidt would also investigate.

Lord Geidt found Mr Johnson acted ‘unwisely’ in allowing the refurbishment to go ahead without ‘more rigorous regard for how this would be funded’, but did not breach the ministerial code.

No 10 said: ‘Lord Geidt’s independent report shows the Prime Minister acted in accordance with the ministerial code at all times. The Prime Minister has made a declaration in his List of Ministerial Interests, as advised by Lord Geidt.’