London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2025

Carrie Johnson is subject of ‘unsavoury’ political attack, claims Raab

Carrie Johnson is subject of ‘unsavoury’ political attack, claims Raab

Justice secretary says prime minister’s wife is being targeted as part of ‘feeding frenzy’

Carrie Johnson is being targeted in a “deeply unsavoury” political attack over allegations Boris Johnson tried to get his then girlfriend a senior job at the Foreign Office in 2018, the deputy prime minister has claimed.

Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and Johnson’s second in command, said Carrie Johnson was being criticised as part of a “feeding frenzy” against the prime minister.

Speaking to Sky News, he batted away calls for an investigation into the allegations, which Labour’s Chris Bryant, the standards committee chair, said appeared to be a case of corruption.

The claims were first made in a book by the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft and came into the spotlight again after the Times withdrew an article going into more detail about how Johnson had tried to get his now wife a £100,000 post at the Foreign Office where he was foreign secretary in 2018. Johnson was still married to Marina Wheeler at the time.

No 10 later admitted having intervened to stop the article from running, despite the journalist who wrote the story, Simon Walters, standing by it. The Guardian has also been told by sources that the story is true, with one saying evidence exists that Johnson tried to get his then girlfriend a job.

Asked whether there should be an investigation, Raab said: “These attacks on Carrie are deeply unsavoury. The allegations have been roundly responded to as flawed. Those are matters for No 10 and Carrie. But frankly, what I think you’re seeing is a political attack on Carrie as a way of getting to the prime minister and that’s out of order.”

He added that there was a “feeding frenzy on anything thrown out there as a claim against the prime minister and his wife and I think that’s wrong”.

The prime minister’s spokesperson has previously said they were unable to comment on Johnson’s activities before he became prime minister, but that “others have made clear this story is untrue”.

The former Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said he was told in 2018 that Carrie Johnson was a rising star running communications in Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) and was being lined up for a special adviser role in the department.

“For someone slightly unproven who knew nothing about foreign affairs to come straight out of CCHQ and into the Foreign Office was rather noticeable,” Duncan told the Guardian.

He said he had had no idea of the nature of her relationship with Johnson and the suggestion about her rapid promotion had only been cursorily mentioned, adding: “Had it got closer to the goal, people who knew more would have revealed more and then the bubble would have burst.”

Duncan said the suggestion Johnson had tried to get his girlfriend a £100,000-a-year taxpayer-funded job was the latest evidence of his “dripping ceiling theory”. “They put one bucket under one drip, another bucket under another drip – but at some point the whole ceiling will come falling down.”

On Tuesday Bryant called for the “paper trail” surrounding the issue to be published. “It is manifestly corrupt to appoint your lover as a spad,” he said in a tweet.

Bryant was urged by the Liberal Democrats’ chief whip, Wendy Chamberlain, to investigate the allegations, given the government’s ethics adviser role remains unfilled after the resignation of Christopher Geidt last week.

After Lord Geidt said the claims “could be ripe for investigation”, Chamberlain said there was a “significant risk that no such inquiry will follow” because No 10 had not committed to replacing the adviser while it reviewed the role.

Chamberlain said: “If found to be true, these allegations would amount to a serious breach of standards in public life and bring not just the office of prime minister into disrepute, but parliament and our politics as a whole.”

Given the standards committee can only conduct general inquires and those referred to it by the standards commissioner, Bryant would have to launch an investigation into “ministerial attempts to appoint people of interest” and then call Johnson as a witness to formally examine the case.

Carrie Johnson’s spokesperson has called the claims about her being offered a job in the Foreign Office “totally untrue”. On the subsequent claims about attempts to find her a job elsewhere, they said: “This is an old story, as untrue now as it was then.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×