‘Carriegate’ is just another Johnson scandal – and not even the most interesting of the bunch

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. First, and matter of some public concern, is expressed succinctly in the headline that appeared in the first edition of last Saturday’s Times: “Johnson tried to give Carrie top Foreign Office job during affair”. Downing Street confirms that members of Boris Johnson’s “team” did object when the Times story hit the newsstands, but deny that the prime minister himself contacted the paper to complain. The prime minister’s official spokesperson states, in a slightly off formulation: “Others have made clear this story is not true, including Mrs Johnson’s spokesperson. We knew what was going on between them and that it was an insane risk to him to let him do it.’ A second ally said: ‘Most of us thought she wasn’t the right person because she was relatively inexperienced.’” Curiously, the unnamed MP who gave the story about walking in abruptly on Johnson and Symonds to Ashcroft partly denied it to Walters, as “20 per cent true”, which suggests that perhaps the lovers were not in full flagrante delicto.