The mysterious MP who confronted Boris Johnson and then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds in an alleged “compromised situation” when he was Secretary of State is Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns, The Independent can reveal.
Downing Street said Burns “marked” the couple’s relationship with Foreign Ministry officials after finding them “having a glass of wine together” alone in Johnson’s Commons office as secretary of Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs in 2018.
Burns, one of Johnson’s most loyal supporters, had a “sixth sense” that their relationship was “one to look at,” said a No. 10 source.
Burns raised the matter with Johnson’s close aide, Ben Gascoigne, who worked for him in the State Department and is now the 10th deputy chief of staff.
It has previously been reported that, in turn, Gascoigne alerted the private office of Johnson’s Foreign Office.
Upon discovering the relationship of Mr. Johnson with Carrie (then Carrie Symonds) as a result of Mr. Burns to them, Mr. Gascoigne and other members of the team of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mr. Johnson threatened to resign if Mr. Johnson went ahead with a plan to name her his. Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of £ 100,000 a year.
Other sources have also told The Independent that Mr. Johnson discussed the possible risk to him of blackmail – or compromise – as Secretary of State if any of the UK’s enemies knew he had an affair.
In this case, they decided not to confront him about his relationship with Ms. Symonds, but successfully blocked his attempt to make her his chief of staff without informing him that it was related to his belief, according to what Mr. Burns had seen, they were. in a relationship.
The claim that Mr Johnson and Mrs Symonds found themselves in a “compromised situation” was first made in an unobserved section of a biography of Carrie Johnson by Tory Lord Ashcroft earlier this year.
When the story resurfaced in The Times earlier this month, it sparked a political dispute when the newspaper dropped the story of later editions after the 10th issue intervened.
Amid wild speculation in recent days about the nature of the alleged “compromised situation” and the identity of those who were said to have known about it, Downing Street has for the first time given its own version of events to try to close the controversy.
The Minister for Northern Ireland, Conor Burns
(PA child)
Source number 10, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Independent that Mr. Burns, at that time the private parliamentary secretary of Mr. Johnson – a minister’s metaphorical “eyes and ears” – stumbled upon him and Ms. Symonds alone in the Commons:
“Conor came in. He saw two people sitting down drinking a glass of wine with which (one) could have concluded where the relationship was going. He didn’t interrupt anything. It was a case of ‘why are they having a glass?’ “and” let’s talk a word with Ben (Gascoigne) “.
“That’s why he (Conor) thought it was something he had to mark. It was about a sixth sense that this was one to look at. The door wasn’t closed. He didn’t go in. He went in where they had a meeting before and yet they were chatting. “
The source added: “He (Conor) could see how this could be evolving.”
The relationship between Mr Johnson and Mrs Symonds was made public later in 2018 after their separation from their second wife, Marina, was announced.
At the height of the “partygate” scandal, Burns led the defense of Mr. Johnson for attending a 10th birthday party in his honor, which led to him being fined for violating Covid’s blocking laws. The MP downplayed the matter by saying the prime minister had been “ambushed with cake”.
Burns, 49, was appointed Commerce Secretary when Johnson succeeded Theresa May in July 2019. He had to resign in 2020 and was suspended as a deputy for a week after a parliamentary inquiry found he had made “veiled threats.” use the privilege to “further the interests of his family” in a financial dispute involving his father.
He was given a second chance in September last year when Johnson appointed him minister of Northern Ireland.
Burns declined to comment.