Attacks aimed at the Prime Minister’s wife are cowardly, sexist and rooted in misogyny, a senior minister claimed on Monday.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid led the defence of Carrie Johnson following accusations that she influences her husband’s decision-making — “preventing him from leading Britain as effectively as voters deserve”.
Mr Javid told Sky News that he thought attacks aimed at the 33-year-old, one of his former special advisors, were "misogynistic".
He added: “It is sexist. I think the partner’s of politicians should be off limits...by all means go after the politicians. But why their wives, their partners, their husbands. This is just about going after an individual and I do think there is a sexism.
“It is undignified, it is unfair and it is wrong.”
MP Richard Fuller also branded the accusations "cowardly" and "unfair".
Over the weekend a biography of the mother-of-two by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft was serialised in the Daily Mail and alleged she had influence over her husband's decision-making.
Lord Ashcroft, writing in the Mail, said his research had suggested her “behaviour is preventing [the Prime Minister] from leading Britain as effectively as the voters deserve”.
It prompted Mrs Johnson to issue a rare public statement through her spokesman on Sunday, insisting she “plays no role in Government”.
A spokesman for Mrs Johnson said: “Yet again Mrs Johnson has been targeted by a brutal briefing campaign against her by enemies of her husband.
“This is just the latest attempt by bitter ex-officials to discredit her. She is a private individual who plays no role in Government.”
It has been alleged that Mrs Johnson has been caught up in a number of scandals involving her husband, including suggestions she pushed for the luxury redecoration of the flat the couple share and was key in the evacuation of animals from the Nowzad charity from Kabul.
No 10 has denied the couple had any involvement in the evacuation.
Guto Harri, the newly appointed director of communications at Downing Street, speaking on the BBC Newscast podcast last week, said the episode “raises that other spectre that never goes away of who is influencing [the PM] and we all know who’s being accused of doing so on this occasion, because she is an animal lover more than him really”.
Asked if he was referring to Mrs Johnson, he replied: “You said it, not me.”
Mrs Johnson has also been linked to several lockdown gatherings in Downing Street now being investigated by the Met Police.
She was accused of organising a birthday party for her husband as well as an Abba "victory" bash in the Number 10 flat when Dominic Cummings left his job and Covid restrictions were in place.
Mr Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former chief aide, has claimed Mrs Johnson wanted to “get rid” of him from No 10.
He alleged she was at one point “trying to change a whole bunch of different appointments and appoint her friends to particular jobs”.
However after his allies dubbed Mrs Johnson “Princess Nut Nut” in press briefings, David Cameron’s wife Samantha said the attacks were “sexist” and said it was "demeaning" to suggest a Prime Minister did not make their own decisions.
This was echoed by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Sunday, who told Times Radio: “The reportage that somehow she’s got undue influence, I don’t think that’s true, the Prime Minister has been in politics for 25 years and has a pretty strong set of ideas.”
But asked if there was an element of sexism in the treatment of Mrs Johnson compared to spouses of former prime ministers, Mr Kwarteng replied: “I wouldn’t say that but I do think it’s interesting when the spouse is someone in their 30s and has got open positions that are well known, people feel free to criticise.”
