With the Christmas party season in full swing, former “first lady” Carrie Johnson has been hosting her nearest and dearest with the traditional festive spread of cocktails and… donuts. Well, mince pies aren’t for everyone. Johnson posted a pic online of her guests, including Charlotte Owen, the youngest member of the House of Lords as of July and the youngest person ever to receive a life peerage.
30-year-old Owen was elevated to the Lords by Carrie’s husband, former PM Boris Johnson, after she had worked for him for three years as his junior political aide in No 10. It caused a storm of controversy at the time as some questioned Owen’s qualifications as a legislator. In her maiden speech to the Lords in November, Baroness Owen personally thanked Johnson for supporting her.
“I must thank the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who put a great deal of trust in me,” she said. "I feel immensely privileged to have worked with him and other Cabinet Ministers during my time at No10. I will be forever grateful not only for this but for his kindness and encouragement." She added, "it has been quite the journey getting to this moment.”
Baroness Owen plans to use her new job perks to save some money on her Christmas shopping. “As an unashamed bargain-hunter, what’s not to love about discount week in the [parliamentary] gift shop?” she wrote in The House magazine this week. She also praised the carols in St Mary Undercroft, the parliamentary chapel, calling them "delightful.” For Owen, “Christmas is a very special time for me.”
Keir flies Ryanair
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is always keen to flex his working-class credentials, often regaling crowds with his rags-to-riches tale of life in a pebble-dashed semi with a toolmaker dad and a mum who worked in the NHS.
Despite moving up in the world as a high-flying lawyer and then a politician, he’s keen to show he hasn’t lost the common touch. Yesterday, for example, Sir Keir travelled to his latest foreign engagement in Estonia, pictured, with budget airline Ryanair.
Some fellow passengers were bemused. It’s a stark contrast to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has been criticised for taking chopper rides to exotic destinations such as Norwich. The PM has fiercely defended his right to jet not just across the world but across the UK, and this week intervened to save an RAF VIP helicopter scheme he uses.
Perhaps Sir Keir remembers the bother his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves got into earlier this year when she flew business class to New York, got caught out on social media, and then tried to hide the evidence.
Ben Wallace demands a hearing
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace is feuding with The Jewish Chronicle. The paper ran an excoriating opinion piece about Wallace’s position on the Gaza war that Wallace, left, called a “hatchet job”. He has asked to write a rebuttal but editor Jake Wallis Simons said no and got a reporter to phone him for a quote instead. “No one should take a media outlet seriously that doesn’t allow a right of reply,” Wallace tweeted.
