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CRUELTY MUST STOP
Boris’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds blasts ‘sick and cowardly’ trophy hunters who shoot puffins as she wears £225 sustainable eco-dress and wellies in first solo speech
BORIS Johnson's girlfriend Carrie Symonds blasted "cruel, sick and cowardly" trophy hunters who shoot puffins tonight in her first solo speech since moving into Downing Street.
Miss Symmonds, 31, wear a £225 eco-friendly floral dress and wellies as she denounced bloodsports and called on Brits to do their bit to save the planet.
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Carrie used her first public appearance since Boris got to No10 to talk about her love of puffins, plastics polluting our oceans, and urge a crackdown on trophy hunting.
She and Boris were snapped looking for the birds at Bempton Cliffs nature reserve in East Riding, Yorkshire, in May - and spent hours searching for them.
Addressing a birdwatching conference in Rutland tonight, she said of the experience: "It was magic, something I’ll never forget.
"When I saw that puffin in all its glory, I was just delighted."
Carrie, who is a senior adviser at US-based environmental campaign group Oceana, also used her speech to slam sick trophy hunters who slaughter innocent animals.
She said: "Why would anyone want to destroy something so beautiful, then stuff its poor lifeless body to keep as some kind of macabre trophy?
"Trophy hunting is cruel, it is sick, it is cowardly and I will never, ever, understand the motivation to do it."
She also said politicians have a "gigantic responsibility to make the right decisions" over the environmental crisis.
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The ticketed event costs £15 to attend and is affectionately known as the "birdwatchers Glastonbury."
Friends of Carrie claim she was “very nervous” about the speech, and was working on it all week.
She spoke for five minutes at the conference at Rutland Water Nature Reserve tonight.
She then went on to appear in a Question Time-style panel alongside guests including BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham and Dragons Den star Deborah Meaden.
Birdfair founder Tim Appleton said: “We’re absolutely over the moon that Carrie is supporting us and we hope she will continue supporting us and conservation for many years to come.”
Miss Symonds also made a conscious effort to make her wardrobe eco-friendly - donning a biodegradable frock.
The Liberty Garden Riding House dress, designed by Justine Tabak, is made from a blend of cotton - a natural fabric that is biodegradable - and doesn’t contain microplastics which can end up in our oceans and damage wildlife.
'CRUEL AND COWARDLY'
The dyes don’t pollute the environment either, and the dress is made locally in small batches in London to reduce any waste.
The Sun revealed today that she told friends this week she wanted to wear something "sustainable" to mark the occasion.
Designer Ms Tabak said on Instagram this morning alongside a snap of the dress that Liberty has been doing their bit to “make their world-famous cloth more sustainable”.
But fashion-lovers won’t be able to get their hands on it yet - as it’s only available to pre-order at the moment.
Carrie's fashion choices have been watched carefully by eagle-eyed Brits since Boris came into No10 at the end of July.
She chose a beautiful £120 floral Ghost dress to watch her partner make his first speech outside Downing Street last month - which was made of viscose, a plant based material.
And she looked stunning in a £159 mustard yellow gingham dress from Whistles earlier this week - which is made of a blend including 33% viscose.
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After the huge popularity of David Attenborough's Blue Planet, tackling waste and saving the planet has shot up the nation's agenda.
And Carrie has long been a campaigner on environmental issues including plastics, protecting wildlife and stopping abuse against animals.
Writing on Twitter last month she wrote: “Saw a puffin for the first time last month. Was so excited. They are far smaller than I expected but you can’t miss them with their amazing rainbow bills.
"I also found out that a baby puffin is called a puffling. Just can’t understand why anyone would want to shoot them. Mad."
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