Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have married in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral, Downing street has confirmed.
The wedding between the prime minister and his 33-year-old partner had been planned six months prior and preparations for Saturday’s ceremony – attended by around 30 close friends and family members – were known only to a handful of church officials, according to The Sun.
It came as an Opinium survey suggested that, in the wake of former aide Dominic Cummings’ testimony this week, which included allegations that he is “unfit” to be prime minister, Mr Johnson no longer enjoys the approval of the public – with his personal ratings falling 12 points to sit at -6, and the Tories lead over Labour slashed from 13 points to six.
Meanwhile, the European Commission’s vice-president Maros Sefcovic has firmly rejected an accusation by the new DUP leader Edwin Poots that the EU is using Northern Ireland as a “plaything” with which to “punish” the UK over Brexit.
Mr Poots is urging the prime minister to consider the “nuclear” option of triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol – which allows either side to suspend aspects of the arrangement it deems to be causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties” – amid anger over checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, as were agreed as part of Mr Johnson’s trade deal with the bloc.
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Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of UK politics.
Boris Johnson ‘marries Carrie Symonds in secret wedding ceremony’
My colleague Conrad Duncan has the details on our leading story this morning – that of the prime minister’s reported marriage to his fiance Carrie Symonds in a top-secret ceremony on Saturday.
It is the prime minister’s third marriage, having finalised his divorce from his second wife Marina Wheeler in 2020.
A witness told The Sun that the cathedral was forced to go into lockdown for the wedding service.
“It was closed for about half an hour and they all came out after,” they said. “It’s not very often we have weddings here, and when they came out they were all bungled into a car.”
Boris Johnson falls out of favour with public as Tory poll lead slashed, survey suggests
The latest polling from Opinium suggests that public approval of Boris Johnson has plunged 12 points to -6, while the Tory party’s lead over Labour has also been cut from 44-31 to 42-36.
The survey also found some 58 per cent of respondents said they had little to no trust in Matt Hancock, with 44 per cent saying he should resign as health secretary, compared to 30 per cent who said he should stay.
It comes after Mr Johnson’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings gave a seven-hour testimony filled with allegations against his former allies and their joint handling of the Covid pandemic – notably claiming that Mr Johnson is “unfit” to be prime minister and that Mr Hancock should have been sacked on 15 to 20 occasions.
SNP finances chief quits, citing lack of support
Douglas Chapman, the MP in charge of the SNP’s finances, has quit the role – claiming he was not given enough support or information to do the job.
The MP for Dunfermline and West Fife announced he had resigned as national treasurer of the party on Saturday evening, having taken over in the role last year on a mandate to “ introduce more transparency into the party’s finances”.
It is not clear what led to Mr Chapman’s decision, but SNP business convener and fellow MP Kirsten Oswald said she “fundamentally disagrees” with Mr Chapman’s assessment.
PM touts new national flagship
A new national flagship and successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was decommissioned in 1997, will promote British trade and industry, Boris Johnson has said.
The vessel – expected to be built in the UK at a reported cost of up to £200m – will be used to host trade fairs, ministerial summits and diplomatic talks as the UK seeks to build links and boost exports after Brexit.
A name for the vessel has not been announced, but the PM has faced pressure from Tory MPs to name it after the Duke of Edinburgh, who played a role in designing Britannia.
But a senior royal source put something of a pin in this proposal, telling The Sunday Times that it was considered “too grand” a symbol for use by the monarchy in the modern age, adding: “It is not something we have asked for.”
Tory ‘civil war’ putting 21 June unlocking at risk, Keir Starmer says
Boris Johnson and his ministers are too busy “covering their own backs” to properly counter the threat posed by the Indian coronavirus variant, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.
Following Dominic Cummings’ explosive evidence about the prime minister’s handling of the pandemic, Sir Keir said “mistakes are being repeated” as the government considers whether to further ease restrictions.
“Weak, slow decisions on border policy let the Indian variant take hold,” he said. “Lack of self-isolation support and confused local guidance failed to contain it. We all want to unlock on 21 June but the single biggest threat to that is the government’s incompetence.”
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WHO must be able to conduct probe into pandemic’s origins ‘unencumbered’, minister says
Asked about reports which suggested British intelligence officials now believe it is “feasible” that Covid-19 escaped from a Wuhan laboratory, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “I think it’s really important that the WHO is allowed to conduct its investigation unencumbered into the origins of this pandemic and that we should leave no stone unturned to understand why.
“Not only because of the current pandemic that has swept the world but also for future proofing the world’s capability to deal with pandemics.”
‘Wrong and mistaken’ to say government has not been levelling with public, minister insists
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has insisted that the government has levelled with the public during the pandemic – despite Dominic Cummings’ claims that Matt Hancock and other ministers’ rhetoric of placing a “shield” around care homes had been false.
“I have been working for the past seven months with Matt Hancock and I can tell you that every day he comes into the office and he focuses on using every resource available to us to be able to save lives, not least with this vaccine rollout,” he told Sky News.
“I think it’s really important to remember and to put a bit of context around this, that in the eye of the storm, in the pandemic early last year, we only had the capability to conduct around 200 tests a day. Our diagnostics capability was almost non-existent. Today, last week, we conducted over six million tests.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but to say that for some reason, we haven’t been levelling with people, I think is wrong and mistaken. At every stage Matt Hancock used every resource available to him to do the best possible job for the people that he needed to protect.”
Government ‘absolutely thinking about’ compulsory vaccines for NHS staff, minister says
The government is “absolutely thinking about” making vaccination compulsory for NHS staff, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has said.
“It would be incumbent on any responsible government to have the debate, to do the thinking as to how we go about protecting the most vulnerable by making sure that those who look after them are vaccinated,” he told Sky News.
“There is precedent for this. Obviously surgeons get vaccinated for hepatitis B, so it is something that we are absolutely thinking about.”
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has more on this breaking story here:
