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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Jim Waterson, Rowena Mason and Aubrey Allegretti

No 10 confirms it asked the Times to drop Carrie Johnson story

Boris and Carrie Johnson attend jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace earlier this month
Boris and Carrie Johnson. A spokesperson for the prime minister’s wife said the allegations were ‘totally untrue’. Photograph: Hannah McKay/AFP/Getty Images

The Times swiftly withdrew a story that made allegations about the prime minister and his wife after Downing Street intervened to complain about it, No 10 has confirmed.

The piece alleged that Boris Johnson attempted to hire Carrie Symonds, who he has since married, as his taxpayer-funded chief of staff when he was foreign secretary and she was a Conservative party press chief.

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