Boris Johnson: Police called to Tory leadership contender’s home
The paper said the neighbour was inside their own flat
Police were called to the London home of Boris Johnson and his partner in the early hours of Friday after neighbours reportedly heard a loud argument.
The Guardian said Carrie Symonds was heard telling the Conservative MP to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
The Metropolitan Police told the BBC it “spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well”.
In a statement, it said “there was no cause for police action”. A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “No comment”.
The Guardian reported that a neighbour had told the newspaper they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”.
The paper said the neighbour was inside their own flat when they recorded the alleged altercation.
‘No offences or concerns’
It said that in the recording – heard by the Guardian, but not by the BBC – Mr Johnson was refusing to leave the flat and telling the woman to “get off” his laptop before there was a loud crashing noise.
Ms Symonds is allegedly heard saying the MP had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
Another neighbour, who would only give her name as Fatima, told the BBC: “I heard a female voice, shouting and screaming, and then I heard things smashing, it sounded like plates or glasses.
“I couldn’t hear what she was saying but she sounded really angry.”
Conservative MP Dominic Grieve told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he could not comment on the Guardian’s report specifically but said the character was relevant in the contest to be the leader of the party.
“They are going to be in a position of responsibility where they have to make very important decisions,” he said.
The former attorney general added: “Clearly, things like reliability and honesty are very important things.
“And I think they matter in one’s private and personal life, and also they matter in one’s public life.”
BBC deputy political editor John Pienaar said questions about Mr Johnson’s private life are hovering over the leadership contest.
He said: “It’s a question of his judgement, decisions that he’s made and how they might inform the way that he takes decisions in the future.
“It’s not just of immediate importance, it bears on the way the country might be run from 10 Downing Street at such a critical point in the country’s history.”
Journalist Sonia Purnell, who has written a biography of Mr Johnson, told the Today programme she believed it was important to know a future leader’s character.
She said: “It is the most unbelievably pressured job, crises will be coming at you day and night. You have to have equilibrium, a clear head, a stability in your life to be able to cope with that.”
But Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson asked: “What right do we have to listen in to a private lovers’ tiff?”
She told the programme: “The Tory members won’t care about this. They’ve been waiting since 2016 to vote for Boris Johnson.”
Mr Johnson’s relationship with Ms Symonds – a former director of communications for the Conservative party – became public after Mr Johnson and his wife announced they were divorcing in 2018.
Ms Symonds was seen in the audience during Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign launch on 12 June.
Source: bbc
