Carrie Symonds wants to be Princess Diana says Cummings’ team…as others praise her for ending macho culture in No10 row

BORIS Johnson's fiancée Carrie Symonds has been caught in the middle of a fierce No10 row.

But while some say she's single-handedly taking on the macho culture, others accuse her of trying to become a modern-day Diana. Here, we take a look at the two teams.

Carrie's on the side of the angels

says Team Symonds

BORIS Johnson’s fiancée was yesterday hailed for single-handedly ending the macho culture in Downing Street.

Carrie Symonds had witnessed the corrosive effect of the strong-arm tactics used by the PM’s most senior aides.

Female officials complained they were picked on in meetings by unkempt enforcer Dominic Cummings — who used brutal language to keep them in line.

But when the PM told her he was going to promote Cummings’s powerful sidekick Lee Cain to chief of staff, she put her foot down.

One No 10 source said: “Carrie was right to be alarmed at what was going on. She is on the side of the angels.”

Carrie, 32, is said to have been furious when the PM told her about his plan.

On Wednesday night, he told Cain that his future bride was opposed to him having the job he had offered him only 48 hours earlier.

It led to him handing in his resignation — triggering the chain of events that ended in Cummings, Britain’s most powerful unelected man, leaving Downing Street too.

Angry allies of the pair claim BoJo was running “government by girlfriend”.

But a host of officials who work behind the famous black door insist that is wide of the mark.

One said: “Many of us think Carrie is right about wanting Boris to tame the behaviour of some of his advisers.

“And why not? She’s a highly professional communications operator in her own right and knows what she is talking about.

“She’s worked as a special adviser for two ministers and was director of communications for the Conservative Party.

“The fact that she happens to be fiancee to the PM is neither here nor there. Good advice is good advice.”

No 10 staffers have spoken of the “thuggish” language used by Mr Johnson’s most senior aide, whom they dubbed “Dirty Dom”.

One said: “You could be forgiven for thinking you were talking to the mafia whenever you had Dom or Lee on the phone. They would talk about knee-capping people who didn’t obey orders.”

Former ministerial adviser Neil Tweedie, sacked after wrongly being accused of leaking, said: “Bullying and intimidation were the norm.”

He told how he received a call from one acolyte who said: “These leaks about travel corridors, mate. If they carry on, we are going to have to start shooting people.”

The “schoolboy Mafioso language” was meant to instil fear, he said.

'MACHO CULTURE'

Female advisers complain they were always told off and accused of leaking more than men, which has been denied.

Carrie allies insist it was not her opposition which led to the pair leaving.

A host of angry MPs made their feelings known when news of Mr Cain’s pending promotion broke.

A source said: “It was, in fact, the whips’ office which delivered the coup de grace. The swelling anger among MPs over the appointment was made clear to the PM and he realised then his fiancee’s judgment was spot on.”

By Thursday, the pair had handed in their notice and announced they would leave in the New Year.

But on Friday night, they were summoned into the PM’s office and he told them he was aware they had been briefing against him and his fiancee — and he could no longer tolerate their presence.

Senior Tories accused Cummings and his allies of undermining the goodwill Mr Johnson won at the last election.

They claim the PM should have cut Cummings loose after he broke the lockdown on his infamous trip to Barnard Castle.

One minister said: “Cummings was rotten and vile to too many people, including journalists and MPs. He’s had a corrosive effect on Boris’s reputation.”

Another added: “It’s astonishing that so many of our new intake of MPs are disillusioned with the PM. They should owe everything to Boris, but because Cummings and Cain were unnecessarily abrasive, rude and disparaging towards them, there is a now a big rift with Downing Street.”

Delusion that she's a new Di

says Team Cummings

CARRIE Symonds is using her “first lady” role to become a modern-day Princess Diana, allies of Dominic Cummings claimed last night.

They believe her desire for the public spotlight ignited the row which led to the PM losing his most senior aide.

Close pals of Cummings accused Boris Johnson’s fiancée of running her own personal fiefdom inside 10 Downing Street.

One said: “She’s having more and more influence in decision making, as the week has shown. She’s not content with being the power behind the throne, she wants to sit on it.

“Carrie wants to be a new Princess Di character. She’s already got her own spin doctor and own team of people and seems to think she is the most important person in No 10.

“It’s all about the court of Carrie. She’s not helping Boris at all. Everything she does is about her and not him.”

The vicious attacks on Carrie were angrily rebuffed by No 10 as “grossly unfair” yesterday.

A source said: “She’s a young mother, who has been through the trauma of her partner’s battle for life against Covid and is trying to raise a young son who is barely six months old in the pressure cooker of Downing Street.”

Team Cummings claims Carrie, 32, rules the roost and calls the PM by phone from the No 10 flat about 20 times a day.

But this was again fiercely denied by Downing Street.

For months, Carrie — a former government adviser before becoming Tory communications chief — has been expressing concerns about Mr Cummings’s treatment of young colleagues.

But she went “absolutely wild” when Boris told her he was considering making Lee Cain — a Cummings loyalist — his chief of staff.

The PM withdrew his promotion offer and Mr Cain, a former Vote Leave campaigner, resigned, triggering a week of chaos at No 10.

One insider claimed Carrie “had it in for Lee” ever since he pipped her to land a Foreign Office job she had applied for in 2016.

He said: “There was a lot of mud-slinging going on. Lee had a good working relationship with Boris but was always under fire.”

Loyal supporters of the combative pair yesterday dismissed claims they were “thrown out” of No 10 as an “embarrassing lie”.

They pointed to a photo Mr Cain had taken laughing and joking with the PM at a meeting where he was meant to have read him the riot act.

One Downing Street official said: “The truth is, there were a lot of tears. Boris was sad at losing Caino, who had been his right-hand man for over four years.

“He was also keen to keep on Dom to take the Brexit process he had helped to achieve to its conclusion.

“In fact, the PM praised them in a farewell speech in front of colleagues before they left.”

Lee Cain’s pals say he has even been told he can return in a year or so to help start preparations for the 2024 General Election.

And they say the comprehensive-educated Merseyside lad did not fit in with the posh set inside No 10.

A source said: “There’s still quite a bit of class snobbery in Westminster and a few of them looked down their noses at Lee because he is from a working-class background and had free school meals.

“He often felt they didn’t think he should be part of their set. And they were forever reminding us how he dressed up as a chicken in his days as a tabloid reporter.”

One senior No 10 source said last night: “Carrie is not the only one alarmed by poor comms and poor management of people. She is completely right to voice her views to her partner.”

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