We should have guessed something was afoot at No 10 when Carrie Symonds appeared beaming beside her man, Boris Johnson, at Sunday’s Remembrance Day commemorations at the Cenotaph.
Holding on tightly to Johnson’s arm, his fiancĂ©e looked all goodness and light as the two of them joked with war veterans.
Carrie radiated the aura of victory.
Had she already planned or won the battle with Boris over whether Lee Cain should be promoted to be his chief of staff?
Cain has been the one urging Carrie to stay out of the spotlight, believing that having Carrie around too much was not helpful to his master’s image.
Now Carrie has played a pivotal part in the ousting of Cain, who objected to the appointment of Allegra Stratton to do the West Wing-style daily press briefing as head of No 10’s communications.
Don’t forget that Carrie used to be a Tory comms specialist herself, which is how she first met Boris. And don’t forget it was Carrie who backed Allegra, persuaded Boris to employ her and supported her in her fight not to be beholden to Cain.
Munira Mirza, director of Bori’s political unit at No 10, also backed Allegra over Cain, the former Vote Leave head of PR who is now leaving for pastures new. Dominic Cummings – who worked with Cain at Vote Leave – is staying, for now. But he had better watch out for No 10’s growing girl power: this is turning out to be a battle of the sisterhood versus the Brexit Boys.
The score so far? Women 1 Boys 0.
