When Henry Newman had a birthday party last summer, he found a much grander venue for the celebration than his modest two-bedroom flat (with no garden) in Hampstead, north London.
The August bash was held at a beautiful 16th century manor set in 1,000 acres of parkland 40 miles outside London called… Chequers.
The No 10 special adviser was given access to the Prime Minister’s grace-and-favour stately home thanks to his status as a leading FOC, or Friend Of Carrie, a member of the tight-knit group surrounding the PM’s wife.
It turned out to be a very high-spirited affair, with the Housing Secretary Michael Gove riding pillion as Boris Johnson took him on a joy-ride on his second-hand Yamaha motorcycle around the grounds.
Gove clasped his hands around Boris’s ample waist as they nudged speeds of 55mph, while Newman – clutching a flute of champagne – laughed and cheered.
His elevation to the post of senior adviser and membership of the PM’s inner circle is said to have been engineered by Carrie, and he became such a trusted figure that he and two other No 10 advisers – Henry Cook and Meg Powell-Chandler – were referred to by the Prime Minister as his ‘three musketeers’.
The No 10 special adviser Henry Newman (left) was given access to the Prime Minister’s grace-and-favour stately home thanks to his status as a leading FOC, or Friend Of Carrie, a member of the tight-knit group surrounding the PM’s wife (right)
But Newman’s status as the leader of the Carrie clique at No 10 was not enough to save him from Boris’s shake-up of the Downing Street operation over the weekend.
It is thought that the Oxford and Harvard-educated egghead, whose desk occupied a prime spot close to Boris’s study, has been banished to work with his former mentor Gove at his departmental HQ a 15-minute walk away in Marsham Street.
His presence at No 10 had always been a remarkable testimony to the Prime Minister’s powers of forgiveness. Newman was one of the figures who persuaded Gove to ‘knife’ Boris and torpedo his bid for the Tory leadership in 2016 by deciding to run himself.
‘Boris forgave Henry long ago,’ says one source.
‘The closer Henry became to Carrie the more his influence rose in No 10.’
But it was that intimate relationship with Mrs Johnson that has proved his undoing.
His departure will be welcomed by many Tory MPs who have privately despaired at the extent of her influence.
‘Henry was always in the flat with Carrie and Boris,’ said one source. ’No other adviser was in the flat so often.’ News of Newman’s move came just two days after Munira Mirza, the head of the Downing Street policy unit, quit her post, and draws a line under one of No 10’s most bitter feuds.
Newman clashed with Mirza, who had worked with Boris for 14 years, over the rights of the trans community.
It is thought that the Oxford and Harvard-educated egghead, whose desk occupied a prime spot close to Boris’s study, has been banished to work with his former mentor Gove (right) at his departmental HQ a 15-minute walk away in Marsham Street. Pictured left: Boris Johnson
He was seen as the leader of the liberal camp in No 10 which subscribed to the view of the controversial charity Stonewall that trans people should be accepted as who they say they are, rather than being defined by their biological sex.
Newman believes that the traditional Tory stance on such issues is a turn-off for voters and helped arrange Carrie’s first public speech at a Tory conference last year when she addressed a meeting co-hosted by Stonewall.
After Nikki da Costa stepped down as the No10 director of legislative affairs last year, she argued – without actually naming Newman – that the PM was being presented with ‘skewed’ advice on trans rights. ‘There is no other organisation – no business or charity – that can pick up the phone to a special adviser sitting outside Boris Johnson’s office and get that person to speak directly to the Prime Minister,’ she said.
‘That is the kind of access that Stonewall has.’
Newman, who is gay, is also a key figure in the preparations for Safe To Be Me: A Global Equality Conference, billed in government circles as the Cop26 of the equality world.
It will take place over several days in London at the end of June, meaning that it will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first London gay pride event, and Stonewall is heavily involved in the organisation of the conference.
Newman is braced for potential criticism when the full report into the Downing Street parties is published by senior civil servant Sue Gray.
As we have seen, he was a regular visitor to Boris and Carrie’s flat above No11 during lockdown and, while Newman maintained the meetings were work-related, Gray will have looked into why the ‘work conversations’ could not be conducted on the telephone or in the PM’s study. Before going into politics, Newman taught the subject at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and moonlights as a local councillor in Camden.
Armed police patrol outside Chequers (pictured), the country residence of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson
He was an enthusiastic campaigner for Vote Leave, was director of the think-tank Open Europe and a regular on BBC and Sky News as one of the few Tories to publicly back Theresa May’s doomed Brexit deal which was rejected by the Commons three times.
His long-time partner is an Italian QC – and like him an arch Brexiteer – who was consulted by Boris over the legality of breaching the EU withdrawal agreement. Newman worked under Michael Gove in the Cabinet Office before joining Boris in No 10 last year.
In Government, he was initially an admirer of the PM’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who he had worked with at Vote Leave. But the two men had a spectacular falling out after Cummings lost a power-struggle with Carrie over access to the PM.
Cummings subsequently made the toxic charge that Newman leaked information about the UK’s second lockdown to the media in 2020. Downing Street flatly denied that Newman was the ‘chatty rat’ who caused the PM to rush forward the official announcement.
But the embittered Cummings wrote in his blog: ‘The Cabinet Secretary [Simon Case] told the PM… that all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman and others in that office.
‘The PM was very upset about this. He said to me afterwards: “If Newman is confirmed as the leaker then I will have to fire him, and this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie as they’re best friends”.’
Newman and Carrie remain best friends. But there will be fewer cosy chats in the Downing Street flat in the future.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10483295/ANDREW-PIERCE-Chief-No-10-Carrie-Johnson-clique-not-save.html
