UK election: Boris Johnson’s secret weapons
If Boris Johnson wins the UK election this week, there are two very important supporters - and one adorable one, in particular - who helped propel him to victory.
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Boris Johnson has two secret weapons – his 31-year-old partner and her adorable dog Dilyn.
Carrie Symonds has become the Conservatives rock star campaigner, touring the nation to knock on doors and convince voters to back her other half.
Labour is so worried about her that they have been plotting to dig up dirt on the PM’s girlfriend in secret messages.
Armed with Dilyn, the couple’s seven-month-old jack russell rescue pup, Ms Symonds has been crisscrossing the country from the Brexit-backing north to pro-Europe heartlands to support Tory volunteers.
All the time, Ms Symonds has wanted to get Brexit done as much as Mr Johnson.
“Do we really want yet another year of arguing about Brexit and nothing happening?” she tweeted on Saturday.
Dilyn is ready to go! pic.twitter.com/smKNKoFVLy
— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) November 7, 2019
“Another referendum would take ages and divide our country further. Time to end the arguing, get Brexit done and move on.”
Ms Symonds is already a Tory campaign veteran. She first became a Tory Party press officer in 2009 and worked for both Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, and former culture secretary, John Wittingdale.
She eventually rose through the ranks to become the Conservative Party’s head of communications under Theresa May.
Ms Symonds left that job in August last year to join pro-conservation group the Oceania Project.
As the first non-married partner of a British PM to live at No 10, she has also not been afraid to use her voice to call for more to be done on climate change and women’s rights.
But in the past few weeks her focus has been solely on Tory success.
Dilyn winning hearts and votes across the constituency! â¦@carriesymondsâ© pic.twitter.com/mjAXiKaqrQ
— Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) December 10, 2019
Ms Symonds spent last week all over Wales in seats like Cardiff North and Gower where the Tories hope they can boot out Labour with the help of that party’s pro-Brexit voters.
And she has been back in London’s posher areas like Richmond Park where the Tories fear pro-EU supporters will vote tactically to stop MPs such as Mr Johnson’s protege Zac Goldsmith, who only has a lead of 45 votes.
When not campaigning, she has been at the Prime Minister’s side at his big rallies and wowed fashion-loving Brits with her sari at a recent visit to a Hindu temple.
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Ms Symonds is considered such a campaign threat that far-left activists have plotted to dig up dirt on her to stop her and Mr Johnson in their tracks.
The Sun reported that one poster in a social media messaging group of more than 3000 pro-Corbyn Momentum activists said the far-left network should investigate Ms Symonds’ previous boyfriends to find anything that could damage her and the Tories.
Ms Symonds is likely to become an even more powerful figure in the Tory Party if her campaigning helps the party win its first expected landslide victory since 1987.
But when asked on radio this week what he was getting Ms Symonds for Christmas, Mr Johnson promised her only one thing – Brexit.
“What I hope everybody in this country will get is to get Brexit done,” he said.
“I’m not thinking about Christmas until we get it done.”
