Boris Johnson does not deny trying to give wife Carrie government jobs

Boris Johnson has not denied trying to give his wife Carrie government jobs after numerous reports claimed he attempted to install her into tax-payer funded roles.

Labour MP Chris Elmore (Ogmore) asked at Prime Minister’s Questions: “Has he ever considered the appointment of his current spouse to a government post or to any organisation in one of the royal households? Be honest prime minister: yes or no?”

Mr Johnson replied: “I know why the party opposite wants to talk about non-existent jobs in the media because they don’t want to talk about what’s going on in the real world.”

It comes after a story - previously printed in the Times newspaper, before being mysteriously deleted - claimed he attempted to install Mrs Johnson as his £100,000-a-year chief of staff while he was foreign secretary and she was his secret girlfriend in 2018.

This was followed by claims in the Mirror which said Mr Johnson discussed environmental roles for his wife in autumn 2020, either for the Cop26 summit or with the Royal Family.

Downing Street said he had never recommended Mrs Johnson for a government role, but stopped short of denying he considered or discussed the move.

The PM’s official spokesman said: “The prime minister has never recommended Mrs Johnson for a government role, or one as part of the Earthshot Prize.

“Beyond that I wouldn’t get into any conversations the prime minister may or may not have had in private.”

The Times first reported on Saturday that Mr Johnson tried to hire Mrs Johnson in the Foreign Office, but the article was removed from later editions.

Downing Street admitted there were conversations between No 10 and the paper after its initial publication and before it was pulled.

Mrs Johnson’s spokeswoman insisted the allegations in the Times’s story were “totally untrue”.

But Simon Walters, the Times journalist who wrote the original story, told the New European news-site he stands by the story "100%".