In a big setback to former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, police had to be called in to his house on Friday after neighbours reported an ugly fight between him and his live-in partner Carrie Symonds.
One of the neighbours, who recorded their heated argument on a mobile phone, told London’s Guardian newspaper that he heard a woman screaming followed by ‘slamming and banging.’ At one point, Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to ‘get off me’ and ‘get out of my flat.’
Johnson is the favourite to become the next prime minister of UK as he’s set to win the race to become the next leader of the Conservative party. He’s pitted against Jeremy Hunt. Symonds is a former Conservative party head of press and credited with transforming the political fortunes of Johnson because of shrewd media management skills.
According to Johnson’s neighbours, they recorded the fight from inside their flat out of concern for Symonds. In the recording, Johnson can be heard refusing to leave the flat and telling Symonds to ‘get off my fucking laptop’ before there is a loud crashing noise.
Symonds, for her part, is heard admonishing Johnson for being a spoilt individual. “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything,” she’s heard saying in the audio.
The neighbours called 999 after the couple refused to open the door even after knocking on the door.
In a statement to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police said, “At 00:24 on Friday 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident in the SE5 area of Camberwell. 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.”
Johnson left his wife, Marina Wheeler, last year and began a relationship with Symonds.
Experts say that the audio recording of his fight with Symonds could potentially rock his ambition to become the next prime minister of Britain. Johnson, a former foreign secretary and ex-Mayor of London, is likely to seek an injunction against the release of the audio recording.