Marriage and a baby was always non-negotiable

Carrie’s friends reveal her vital conditions for the relationship:

Despite the 24-year age gap, Carrie was blown away by his charisma

IT WAS almost four months ago that UK prime minister

Boris Johnson declared that an election win for the Tories – and a green light for his Brexit deal – would provoke a baby boom similar to that seen after the London 2012 Olympics.

‘Cupid’s darts will fly once we get Brexit done,’ he rhapsodised. ‘Romance will bloom across the whole nation.’

And, indeed, it has now come to pass – at least, behind the doors of No.10.

The official announcement brings to an end weeks of speculation. Marriage rumours, and the suggestion that Ms Symonds was pregnant, have been an open secret in Westminster circles for the last few months.

It was noticed that Carrie had spent only a short amount of time at the boozy Brexit celebrations on January 31. Pictures from election night on December 12 appeared to show her with a bottle of beer – but not drinking from it – and the pair are said to have spent a quiet Christmas Day together.

She had been keeping an increasingly low profile in London and Boris had notably been spending more time at Chequers and country retreat Chevening. Then, Carrie seemed to disappear completely when she went on an extended business trip to the States, sending the rumour mill into overdrive.

Snatched photographs of Carrie arriving at Downing Street in recent days via a back entrance, with what seemed to be a fuller figure, did nothing to dampen the speculation.

Despite yesterday’s carefully orchestrated announcement, the cat was very nearly let out of the bag by Boris’s father Stanley.

In the March edition of Saga magazine, which is already available, Stanley – the issue’s cover star – told how much he enjoyed his grandchildren and hinted that there may be ‘more on the way’.

Political observers, meanwhile, have been primed for a significant media announcement since Carrie hired a personal spin doctor, Sarah Vaughan-Brown, a close friend of the couple, just a few days ago.

The timing appears to have been deliberately planned to come after Johnson’s divorce from his estranged wife, barrister Marina Wheeler – mother of four of his children – was finalised.

The couple, who were married for 27 years, reached a private agreement 10 days ago in a short court hearing. Their assets are thought to include £3.35m in proceeds from the sale of the London townhouse they once shared.

It was considered then that this could pave the way for a potential marriage to Carrie, speculation which Boris has always insisted was ‘a tiny bit premature’. But friends have always claimed that he would propose after his divorce went through.

And, indeed, according to sources close to the couple, marriage and a baby was ‘non-negotiable’ for Carrie. ‘That is what she has always wanted, a condition of their relationship, almost. And he was happy to oblige,’ a source told The Mail on Sunday. Mr Johnson’s romance with Carrie – who he calls Apples – the bubbly and gregarious former Conservative director of communications, first emerged after they were photographed together at the party’s fundraising Black and White Ball in London in February 2018.

Just a week later, the pair were spotted enjoying an intimate dinner at a corner table of the capital’s oldest restaurant, Rules.

Privately educated Carrie, a highprofile figure in Westminster circles for over a decade, is understood to have first met Boris when she was working as an aide to Culture Minister John Whittingdale in 2011.

She is said to have been blown away by his charisma, and they forged a close friendship despite the 24-year age gap and the fact that Boris was then-married with four children and had another daughter as a result of an extramarital affair. But friends insist their relationship did not begin until after he and Ms Wheeler separated.

Blonde, charming and ‘waspishly gossipy’, Ms Symonds had been known as the life and soul of the party who posted glamorous pictures of herself on social media.

But she ruffled feathers in government when she took them on over the planned release of taxi driver rapist John Worboys, leading a fundraising effort for his victims to sue the then-Justice Secretary.

She testified publicly against Worboys, waiving her anonymity and revealing herself to have been targeted by the serial sex attacker when she was 19. Her testimony had led to his original conviction in 2009 for attacks against 12 women. But he was handed a further two life sentences for attacks on four more women and now may never be released.

Her intervention infuriated some former colleagues but she was praised for her bravery in a handwritten note from then-prime minister Theresa May.

She left her government job in the summer of 2018 amid claims of rows with No.10 over her closeness to Mr Johnson’s camp, and moved to City news firm Bloomberg before taking on a public relations role with the Oceana project, which aims to protect the world’s oceans.

But despite her long career in politics, she has told friends that she ‘struggled’ when Boris first arrived at No.10 in July last year, and that ‘it was a tricky wave to ride and took some getting used to’.

But they say Carrie makes Boris blissfully happy and has brought a new sense of calm to his sometimes boisterous and restless nature.

The couple relax by spending their evenings painting together, a passion that Boris’s political hero Winston Churchill also enjoyed, and at the weekends will go on bike rides together in the countryside.

They enjoy good meals out as much as cosy nights on the sofa. ‘Food is a big part of their relationship,’ said one source.