Sonia Purnell says ‘he didn’t respect either of his wives’

Boris Johnson’s biographer Sonia Purnell says ‘he didn’t respect either of his wives’ as PM battles claim he grabbed journalist Charlotte Edwardes’ thigh

• Boris Johnson’s biographer has said he did not treat her with respect when they worked together in Brussels, and that he ‘didn’t respect either of his wives’
• Sonia Purnell, who worked with the PM in Brussels, accused the PM of having ‘betrayed his mistresses’ and called his ‘not a good track record’ with women
• It comes after journalist Charlotte Edwardes accused Johnson of squeezing her thigh under a table at a Spectator dinner in 1999
• And investigations are underway into public money directed under Johnson’s Mayoralty of London to an American with whom he was allegedly sleeping

A former colleague of Boris Johnson’s has said he did not treat her, or his wives, with respect as rows and rumours over the Prime Minister’s track record with women continue to overshadow the Tory Party conference in Manchester.

Sonia Purnell, who worked with Mr Johnson in his days as a journalist and has written a biography which dwells on Johnson’s serial womanising, told the BBC the PM’s was ‘not a good track record’.

It comes amid accusations that twice-divorced Mr Johnson squeezed a colleague’s thigh without consent under a table at a Spectator dinner in 1999 and improperly funnelled funds to an American pole dancer turned tech entrepreneur during his days as Mayor of London.  He has denied the allegations.

Ms Purnell told the Victoria Derbyshire programme: ‘In terms of Boris Johnson’s wider relationship with women – does he respect women – well look,  I used to be his deputy.

‘In Brussels we were reporting on the EU together.

‘He certainly didn’t treat me with respect at all, I can cheerfully say that.

Sonia Purnell, who worked with Mr Johnson in his days as a journalist and has written a biography which dwells on Johnson’s serial womanising, told the BBC the PM’s was ‘not a good track record’

‘Maybe he has changed but I don’t think so.  The evidence tells us that he certainly didn’t respect either of his wives in the way that he carried on with all those other women.

‘He didn’t respect those mistresses either, it would seem, he often betrayed them as well.

‘So if you look at that – and you look at what he’s written, he used to do a motoring column for GQ and used to make all sorts of really, the most appalling so-called jokes about gearsticks and things, pretty shocking.

‘And said that women only went to university to find husbands – that was a bit more recent – so , not a good track record.’

In his review of Ms Purnell’s 2011 biography of Johnson,  then-Mail columnist Quentin Letts wrote: ‘His second wife – the present Mrs Johnson, as Sir Terry Wogan might say – was heavily pregnant when she secured her beau in wedlock.

Boris Johnson pictured with his current partner, former Tory Party communications chief Carrie Symonds

Boris Johnson pictured with his second wife Marine Wheeler. Divorce proceedings between the pair are believed still to be ongoing

Boris Johnson’s first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen, pictured in 2012 when she worked with the then-Mayor 

‘She has not had an easy time of things, what with his straying like an over-sexed alley cat, yet she is a divorce lawyer. 

‘An adviser told Mr Johnson that if he pushed things too far she could leave him destitute.

‘Again, the reason these private weaknesses are worth airing is that they present a fuller picture of this simmeringly ambitious politician. 

‘Is it not possible, or even likely, that a man who cheats on his wives will also cheat on constituents and party colleagues? 

‘This is Miss Purnell’s theme, along with the thesis that Mr Johnson is, for all his bonhomie, an introspective person, someone whose character is concealed by defences as high and rigid as the walls of Harlech Castle.’

Mr Johnson (right)  is accused of squeezing journalist Charlotte Edwardes’ (left) thigh at a private lunch

Ms Wakefield pictured with her husband, senior Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings

It comes after, yesterday, the wife of top Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings denied rumours she was a second woman whose thigh was allegedly squeezed under a table by Boris Johnson in 1999. 

Mary Wakefield – a journalist at the Spectator magazine and an employee of Mr Johnson’s during his time as editor when the alleged incident is said to have occurred – issued a statement insisting ‘nothing like this ever happened to me’.

She called Mr Johnson ‘a good boss’ and added his accuser, Charlotte Edwardes, had never mentioned the incident to her.

The PM yesterday denied claims he had squeezed Ms Edwardes’ thigh under a table during a private lunch – and complained the story was preventing him talking about buses.

The PM attempted to shrug off the allegations from Ms Edwardes as they threatened to derail the Tory conference in Manchester. 

Asked in a TV interview if he had touched Ms Edwardes’ leg without permission, Mr Johnson said: ‘No, and I think what the public want to hear is what we are doing to level up and unite the country.’

Mr Johnson then gave a rambling answer about buses, before being asked whether he was accusing Ms Edwardes of making the story up.

‘I’m just saying what I’ve said. What the public want to hear is what we are doing for them and for the country and the investment in ways of uniting the country,’ he said. 

In a column for the Sunday Times’ Style magazine, Ms Edwardes said that after the lunch had taken place she had confided in the young woman who was sitting on the other side of Mr Johnson, who told her: ‘Oh God, he did exactly the same to me.’

At the Party conference in Manchester rumours had been swirling that Mrs Wakefield was the other party.

Boris Johnson, pictured in Manchester, reportedly told aides the allegations made against him were ‘f***ing untrue’

Yesterday the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg tweeted: ‘Statement from Mary Wakefield, who happens to be Dominic Cummings’ wife-‘I am not the woman referred to in Charlotte Edwardes’s column. 

‘Boris was a good boss and nothing like this ever happened to me. Nor has Charlotte, who I like and admire, ever discussed the incident with me.’

A Downing Street spokesman said the accusations made against Mr Johnson were ‘untrue’.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock risked a damaging split by saying he knew Ms Edwardes to be ‘trustworthy’, while Amber Rudd said she agreed. 

The Sun said Mr Johnson had told his advisers that ‘this is f***ing untrue’ when the claims were first brought to his attention after they were published in The Sunday Times. 

Meanwhile, Sajid Javid said he ‘totally trusts’ Mr Johnson over the allegations which dominated the start of Conservative Party conference in Manchester. 

But a Number 10 spokesman moved to reject the allegations as they said: ‘This allegation is untrue.’

Downing Street’s rebuttal prompted Ms Edwardes – the partner of ITV’s Robert Peston – to respond on Twitter: ‘If the prime minister doesn’t recollect the incident then clearly I have a better memory than he does.’

American businesswoman and ex-model Jennifer Arcuri (right) told friends she was having a sexual affair with Boris Johnson, it has been claimed

Meanwhile  friends of American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri claimed she had an affair with Mr Johnson while he was serving as Mayor of London and married to his estranged wife Marina Wheeler.

David Enrich, finance editor of the New York Times, said classmates on an MBA course in London told him about the affair.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘Two friends from her business class said they had been told by Arcuri that she was sleeping with Boris.’

The Prime Minister has been involved in an ongoing scandal over his relationship with Ms Arcuri after it was reported that she was given £126,000 in public money.

The Department for Culture Media and Sport is now investigating its grant to one of Ms Arcuri’s firms.

It is thought that a UK phone number made the company, which is now run from California, eligible for the £100,000 grant.

It was also reported that she had access to three trade missions led by Mr Johnson while he was the capital’s mayor.

Mr Johnson appeared at an event run by Ms Arcuri’s company Innotech in 2012.

The company was given more than £10,000 in sponsorship from one of the London mayor’s funds a year later.

An investigation has been launched by the Greater London Authority into Mr Johnson’s relationship with Ms Arcuri, with the police watchdog being asked to look into claims of misconduct.

Mr Johnson’s relationship with Ms Arcuri (pictured) has caused him to become the subject of a police investigation

Mr Johnson has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his links with Ms Arcuri.

The latest allegations of infidelity follow a string of well-publicised stories involving Mr Johnson’s private life, some of which plagued his 25-year marriage to second wife Marina Wheeler.

In 2004 he was sacked from the Tory frontbench over a reported affair with journalist and colleague at the Spectator Petronella Wyatt.

He described claims about the relationship as ‘an inverted pyramid of piffle’ at the time.

Affair claims reared their head again in 2006 when it was reported that the married father-of-four had been romancing Anna Fazackerley of the Times Higher Education Supplement.

The Appeal Court ruled in 2013 that the public had a right to know that he had fathered a daughter during another adulterous liaison with another woman, Helen Macintyre, while mayor of London in 2009.

Despite surviving years of turmoil, Mr Johnson and his lawyer wife separated and began divorce proceedings in 2018 and he is now living at Downing Street with former Tory Party worker Carrie Symonds, 31.

Source: Read Full Article