Downing Street said Burns “strengthened” the pair’s relationship with Foreign Office officials after finding them “drinking a glass of wine together” alone in Johnson’s office as foreign secretary in 2018. Burns, one of Johnson’s staunchest supporters, had a “sixth sense” that their relationship was “worthy of attention”, a senior No 10 source said. Mr Burns raised the issue with Mr Johnson’s close aide Ben Gascoigne, who worked with him at the Foreign Office and is now No 10 deputy chief of staff. It has previously been reported that Mr Gascoigne in turn alerted Mr Johnson’s Foreign Office private office. When they discovered Mr Johnson’s affair with Carrie (then Carrie Symonds) as a result of Burns’ interference with them, Mr Gascoigne and other members of Johnson’s Foreign Office team threatened to resign if Johnson went ahead with a plan to appoint her as his own. £100,000 a year Foreign Office Chief of Staff. The Independent has also been told by other sources that Johnson’s team discussed the potential risk of blackmail – or compromise – as foreign secretary if one of Britain’s enemies found out he was having an affair. In this case, they decided not to confront him about his relationship with Ms. Symonds, but they successfully blocked his attempt to make her his chief of staff without informing him that she was associated with their belief, based on what Mr. Burns had seen. , that they were in a relationship. The claim that Mr Johnson and Ms Symonds were in a “compromising situation” was first made in a barely noticed section of a biography of Carrie Johnson by Tory Lord Ashcroft earlier this year. When the story reappeared in The Times earlier this month, it led to a political row when the paper withdrew the story from subsequent editions after No 10 intervened. Amid wild speculation in recent days about the nature of the alleged “compromising situation” and the identities of those said to have known about it, Downing Street gave its version of events for the first time in a bid to shut down the controversy. Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns (PA wire) The senior No 10 source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Independent that Mr Burns, at the time Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary – a minister’s metaphorical “eyes and ears” – ran into him and Mrs. Simmonds alone in the Commons: “Connor walked in on them. He saw two people sitting down and drinking a glass of wine, so (one) might have figured out where the relationship was going. It didn’t interrupt anything. It was a case of “why are they having a drink?” and “let’s have a chat with Ben (Gascoigne)”. “That’s why (Connor) thought it was something to point out. It was about a sixth sense that this was a sensation to watch. The door was not locked. He didn’t go in. He walked in where they had a meeting earlier and were still chatting.’ Johnson and Ms Simmonds’ relationship went public later in 2018 after he announced his split from his second wife Marina. At the height of the ‘partygate’ scandal, Mr Burns led the defense of Mr Johnson for attending a No 10 birthday party in his honour, which led to him being fined for breaching Covid containment laws. The MP downplayed the matter saying that the prime minister was “ambushed with a cake”. Burns, 49, was appointed trade secretary when Johnson succeeded Theresa May in July 2019. He was due to stand down in 2020 and was suspended as an MP for a week after a parliamentary inquiry found he had made “veiled threats”. to use the privilege to “advance his family’s interests” in a financial dispute involving his father. He was given a second chance in September last year when Johnson appointed him Northern Ireland minister. Mr Burns declined to comment.
