A minister and key Boris Johnson ally dismissed the police being called to investigate a screaming row at his home as a “non-story” and attacked the “lefty neighbours” who alerted them.
Ben Wallace, the security minister, later deleted the tweet after criticism – while a leading grassroots Conservative said the controversy would quickly “puff up and blow away”.
But a senior Labour MP, Mary Creagh, said the incident raised questions, saying: “We have seen in the past, with Boris Johnson, that he seems to have a problem with women.”
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Mr Johnson’s team have refused to comment on the domestic dispute at the south London flat he shares with his young girlfriend Carrie Symonds, a former Tory aide.
Ms Symonds was heard screaming and telling the 55-year-old Tory leadership favourite to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
Mr Wallace said, in the deleted tweet: “What a non-story ‘couple have row.’ Lefty neighbours give recording to Guardian. Newspaper reaches new low is a better news story.”
1/5 Made-up quote for The Times
Johnson was sacked from The Times newspaper in the late 1980s after he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace. “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace,” he claimed.
Alas, Gaveston was executed 13 years before the palace was built. “It was very nasty,” Mr Johnson added, before attempting to downplay it as nothing more than a schoolboy blunder.
PA
2/5 Sacked from cabinet over cheating lie
Michael Howard gave Boris Johnson two new jobs after becoming leader of the Conservatives in 2003 – party vice-chairman and shadow arts minister.
He was sacked from both positions in November 2004 after assuring Mr Howard that tabloid reports of his affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt were false and an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When the story was found to be true, he refused to resign.
PA
3/5 Broken promise to boss
In 1999 Johnson was offered editorship of The Spectator by owner Conrad Black on the condition that he would not stand as an MP while in the post. In 2001 he stood – and was elected – MP for Henley, though Black did allow him to continue as editor despite calling “ineffably duplicitous”
PA
4/5 Misrepresenting the people of Liverpool
As editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise for an article in the magazine which blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and suggested that the people of the city were wallowing in their victim status.
“Anyone, journalist or politician, should say sorry to the people of Liverpool – as I do – for misrepresenting what happened at Hillsborough,” he said.
PA
5/5 ‘I didn’t say anything about Turkey’
Johnson claimed in January, that he did not mention Turkey during the EU referendum campaign. In fact, he co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”. The Vote Leave campaign also produced a poster reading: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU”
1/5 Made-up quote for The Times
Johnson was sacked from The Times newspaper in the late 1980s after he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace. “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace,” he claimed.
Alas, Gaveston was executed 13 years before the palace was built. “It was very nasty,” Mr Johnson added, before attempting to downplay it as nothing more than a schoolboy blunder.
PA
2/5 Sacked from cabinet over cheating lie
Michael Howard gave Boris Johnson two new jobs after becoming leader of the Conservatives in 2003 – party vice-chairman and shadow arts minister.
He was sacked from both positions in November 2004 after assuring Mr Howard that tabloid reports of his affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt were false and an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When the story was found to be true, he refused to resign.
PA
3/5 Broken promise to boss
In 1999 Johnson was offered editorship of The Spectator by owner Conrad Black on the condition that he would not stand as an MP while in the post. In 2001 he stood – and was elected – MP for Henley, though Black did allow him to continue as editor despite calling “ineffably duplicitous”
PA
4/5 Misrepresenting the people of Liverpool
As editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise for an article in the magazine which blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and suggested that the people of the city were wallowing in their victim status.
“Anyone, journalist or politician, should say sorry to the people of Liverpool – as I do – for misrepresenting what happened at Hillsborough,” he said.
PA
5/5 ‘I didn’t say anything about Turkey’
Johnson claimed in January, that he did not mention Turkey during the EU referendum campaign. In fact, he co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”. The Vote Leave campaign also produced a poster reading: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU”
Replying to a Twitter user objecting to the suggestion it was a “non-story”, Mr Wallace referred to domestic abuse, saying: “Didn’t say DA was a non-story. It is incredibly serious. But the report said ‘row’.”
Tim Sinclair, a Conservative local elections candidate in Stratford-on-Avon, said the story would blow over, adding: “Despite his background, he’s actually regarded as a man of the people purely because he acts normally – he speaks his mind, he does things and behaves in ways that normal people can look at.
“While this isn’t what you might call normal, having police come to your door, actually it shows him to be a real human being; having a row that gets a bit out of hand.”
But Ms Creagh, a Labour Commons committee chairwoman, referred to Mr Johnson’s notorious comment that Muslim women wearing veils resemble letterboxes as evidence of his “problem with women”.
“There is a picture starting to build about Boris Johnson – and it’s not a pretty one,” she told Sky News.
“These latest allegations are of great concern both for Tory voters and for everyone in the country.”
A recording of the incident, on Thursday night, revealed Mr Johnson shouted at Ms Symonds to “get off my f***ing laptop” before a loud crashing noise was heard.
She was heard complaining that he had spilled red wine on her sofa, before adding: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
The neighbour who recorded the row told The Guardian: “There was a smashing sound of what sounded like plates. There was a couple of very loud screams that I’m certain were Carrie and she was shouting to ‘get out’ a lot.”
In a statement, Scotland Yard said of its investigation: “The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour. Police attended and spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well.
“There were no offences or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action.”
