Boris Johnson’s advisor tried to get Carrie Johnson a job at the Royal Foundation

I often call Prince William a “Tory stooge.” That’s because his senior advisors are all Conservative political operatives, and there’s a revolving door between Boris Johnson’s government and Kensington Palace. While I’m sure the Queen and Prince Charles have had their fair share of Tory advisors over the years, their political affiliation isn’t a prerequisite for the job. In William’s case, it feels like the Tory Party has decided to groom William for the dull, conservative figurehead they’ll need him to be. One of William’s ex-advisors is Simon Case, who left Kensington Palace to work in the Johnson government. It was there that Case tried to put Boris Johnson’s then-fiancee (Carrie Symonds, now Carrie Johnson) into William’s Earthshot Prize charity. This is a very odd story!

An attempt to secure Carrie Johnson a role with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s charity was rejected amid concerns it would be inappropriate for the Prime Minister’s fiancée to work with the royals, The Telegraph can reveal. Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, approached the Royal Foundation that manages Prince William’s charity work after the birth of the Johnsons’ first child, Wilfred, in April 2020.

The Telegraph understands that Mr Johnson asked his officials to look for a charitable job for his then-fiancée after his original suggestion of giving her a plum government special adviser role was rejected by officials. One aide suggested that Mrs Johnson instead worked in communications for the Duke and Duchess’s Earthshot Prize, which gives an annual award of £1 million for environmental work.

But after he approached the Foundation, Mr Case was given a “quiet rebuke” and the idea was “kicked into the long grass” after staff said it would be inappropriate for Mrs Johnson to work there because she was engaged to the Prime Minister.

Officials are understood to have said that Mrs Johnson’s relationship would risk undermining the political neutrality of the royals’ work, while the role may also have required her to speak to journalists.

On Tuesday, the Daily Mirror reported that Mrs Johnson had also been discussed in Downing Street for a role at the Royal Foundation, but that no approach was ever made. But The Telegraph understands that Mr Case was in fact instructed to make contact with the charity, which is run by his former bosses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The civil servant is said to have asked the Foundation whether Mrs Johnson would be suitable for the role, and whether she could expect to be paid.

Downing Street on Tuesday night denied that the Prime Minister himself had ordered Mr Case to approach the charity, but did not dispute that he had been involved in discussions about it or that Mr Case had done so. A spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has never recommended Mrs Johnson for a government role or one as part of the Earthshot Prize.”

[From The Telegraph]

Simon Case worked in Kensington Palace, tasked with embiggening William and Kate for years. Then he left to work for the Johnson government, where he was tasked with using his royal connections to find Carrie Johnson a high-paying busywork job. Case made the approach to KP and the story is that KP turned down Case? Because it would be “inappropriate” for Carrie Johnson to work with the Royal Foundation or Earthshot? I doubt so many of the motives of everyone involved in this story. I think it’s perfectly possible that the Royal Foundation (Will, Kate and their advisors) simply didn’t want Carrie specifically to work there. Way too high-profile, people might start asking questions about her salary and what kind of busywork she does there.

… It also kind of strikes me that Carrie would have been much more suited in a position with The Prince’s Trust, Prince Charles’s signature charity. Weird that Charles didn’t get the approach. Then again, maybe it’s not weird. Charles isn’t a Tory stooge and he probably would turn his nose up at providing the prime minister’s wife/fiancee with a sinecure job.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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24 Responses to “Boris Johnson’s advisor tried to get Carrie Johnson a job at the Royal Foundation”

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  1. Noki says:

    These nothing jobs that are rotated amongst the aristos and toffs (is that same thing??) are a joke.

  2. Hic says:

    Isn’t there issues with the story disappearing from newspapers in Britain after Boris called the editors? The author stands by story and it remains in non-UK outlets. The ethical issues seems off the charts.

    • Jane says:

      Different job/story. It seems BoJo has been trying to get her various nepotistic positions for quite a long time.

      • Jessamine says:

        Haven’t there also been a lot of stories about how small and inconvenient they find the downing street residence and how they are basically “impoverished” having to live off only the PM salary?

      • MeganC says:

        How broke is Boris Johnson? Trying to lean on the royals to get his wife a job is a pretty desperate move.

      • Sofia says:

        @MeganC: For someone like Carrie, having a job isn’t for money but because it’s something to occupy her time with in the day. And the royals notoriously don’t pay their staffers much. While Carrie may have gotten a better salary than other royal staff, she isn’t looking for a job because she needs the cash.

    • HandforthParish says:

      He tried to get her a very highly paid job working for him.
      At the time she was his mistress- his wife was being treated for cervical cancer.
      He’s a peach of a man.

  3. Digital Unicorn says:

    Given that he was stopped from making her his chief of staff – i guess he was desperate to offload her in some sort of high level position to get her away from interfering in running of the gov. There are many reasons why her nickname here in the UK is Carrie Antoinette – she really fancies herself as some sort of backroom mover and shaker/power behind the throne.

    She is even more messy than BoJo is and that saying something.

  4. Beff2 says:

    Wasn’t Case’s boyfriend mixed up in a scandal involving leaking to the Fail about H&M?

  5. Jay says:

    Simon Case was also involved with the bullying allegations against Meghan, right? Seems the palace hires only the best people.

    • Polo says:

      And I believe he was in Epsteins logbook.
      Him, Jason and William are the perfect trifecta of slimballs all having worked together to sabotage Harry and Meghan especially.
      It was a political hit job something they are clearly used to.

      • one of the marys says:

        @polo
        Ugh, I’m so glad Meghan and Harry refused to stick around and play those stupid games. Slime balls indeed. The more I read about William the worse he comes off. I wonder if after the queen dies and M&H have some distance and healing from that trauma if H will unleash on William. William seems to be stupid enough to keep provoking his brother and that take down would be delicious

  6. Sofia says:

    Carrie’s interests, whether genuine or not, (I don’t know I don’t really keep up with her other than when she makes major news like this), are environmentalism so that’s probably the main reason why a job in Earthshot was sought for her rather than Prince’s Trust. But maybe you’re right and the Tories didn’t want to send her to work for a man who’s criticised them. Both reasons can be true.

    Not a surprise honestly. The door between Downing Street and KP is a connected and revolving one. “Lower level” staff are probably traded amongst them but we don’t hear about it because they’re well, not as high profile positions

  7. Tarte au Citron says:

    If I remember correctly, Carrie is pretty well-connected in her own right. She probably didn’t even need to lean on Bojo The Clown for these roles. He tried to get the previous mistress a job (or some other plush gig) too. I’m sure there are more examples.

    • LizzieB says:

      She is but she was also sacked for fiddling her expenses from her high-profile role with the Conservatives – essentially fraud/embezzlement. So she may not have had as many doors opened for her as she previously had!

  8. Merricat says:

    I hope they do get rid of Johnson altogether. He’s a disaster.

  9. Mina_Esq says:

    I disagree with the repeated use of “busywork” in this article. She is actually a very capable communications person. She was quite the superstar in the party before she hooked up with BoJo. Earshot would have massively benefited from her involvement.

    • Emme says:

      100% agree

    • JaneBee says:

      @MINA_ESQ I agree with you that Carrie appears to actually have a work ethic/skills; however, I read Kaiser’s ‘busy work’ comment as shading Earthshot rather than Carrie?

  10. Princessk says:

    Kaiser is very correct to say that there is a revolving door between Johnson government and the Palace. She forgot to mention Lord Geidt the Queen’s former Private Secretary who Case recruited to be Johnson’s Ethics Advisor, who has recently resigned. You may recall that Lord Geidt was asked to help Meghan at one point, this could have been the Queen trying to provide Meghan with more guidance when she saw the way Meghan was being attacked.
    On the question of Carrie l see clear parallels with Meghan in the way blame is being heaped on her for supposedly controlling and leading her husband astray. Very misogynistic in my opinion.

    • JaneBee says:

      @PrincessK I was surprised to discover Lord Geidt did *not* attend Eton. Instead he’s a Dragon School old boy – i.e. the school that Edo Mapelli-Mozzi attended.