Boris Johnson will take time off with his family after his wife, Carrie, gave birth to the couple’s second child yesterday, raising questions over the chain of command in No 10.
Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, is self-isolating after coming into contact with his Australian counterpart, who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Downing Street said that Johnson would continue to lead the country and would not take full paternity leave following the birth of his seventh child, a healthy baby girl, but said he would spend time with his family. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is third in the chain of command in Downing Street.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “You can expect the prime minister to take some time with his family. Obviously, as ever, he needs to balance that with his responsibilities as prime minister in leading the country, which he will continue to do.”
Raab is one of three cabinet ministers who are self-isolating. In addition to Raab, both Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, and Michael Gove, the housing and communities secretary, have gone into quarantine after coming into contact with Barnaby Joyce.
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The Australian deputy prime minister was in London earlier this week before travelling to the US for further meetings. He announced that he tested positive while en route to Washington but described his symptoms as mild.
Carrie Johnson had the baby in a London hospital yesterday morning. The couple already have a one-year-old son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas, who was born in April last year.
The child is Boris Johnson’s seventh. He has four children from his marriage with his second wife Marina Wheeler QC, 57, a human rights lawyer: Cassia Peaches Johnson, 24; Lara Lettice Johnson-Wheeler, 28; Theodore Apollo Johnson, 22; and Milo Arthur Johnson, 26. He also has a daughter, Stephanie, 12, from a relationship with the art dealer Helen Macintyre.
Johnson, 57, married Carrie, 33, née Symonds, in a private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral in May. The couple are said to be planning a bigger celebration next July. She is a former Conservative Party head of communications and now works at the Aspinall Foundation, a wildlife charity.
A spokeswoman for the couple said: “The prime minister and Mrs Johnson are delighted to announce the birth of a healthy baby girl at a London hospital earlier today. Both mother and daughter are doing very well. The couple would like to thank the brilliant NHS maternity team.”
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The prime minister’s wife announced she was pregnant in an Instagram post in July, in which she revealed she had been left “heartbroken” after a miscarriage. In the post she said she was hoping for a “rainbow baby”, the term used for children born after a miscarriage.
“At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken,” she said. “I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but I’ve also felt like a bag of nerves. Fertility issues can be really hard for many people, particularly when on platforms like Instagram it can look like everything is only ever going well.
“I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss so I hope that in some very small way sharing this might help others too.”
Wilfred was born at University College London Hospital and last month, in a poorly received speech to the CBI, the prime minister described taking him to Peppa Pig World, an amusement park in Hampshire, which he described as “my kind of place”.
He objected, however, to the depiction of Daddy Pig as clumsy and stubborn. “I was a bit hazy about what I’d find at Peppa Pig World,” he said. “But I loved it, and Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place. It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on new mass-transit systems, I notice. Even if they’re a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig.”
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Boris Johnson has had three wives and at least seven children (George Grylls writes). He was married to Allegra Mostyn-Owen, a journalist, from 1987 to 1993. He then married Marina Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, in 1993. The couple divorced last year and he married Carrie Symonds, the Tory party’s former head of communications, last May.
Boris Johnson’s children with Marina Wheeler
•Lara Lettice Johnson-Wheeler, 28, fashion journalist
•Milo Arthur Johnson, 26, student of Arabic
•Cassia Peaches Johnson, 24, Trinity College Dublin graduate
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•Theodore Apollo Johnson, 22, Cambridge graduate
Children with Helen Macintyre
•Stephanie Macintyre, 12, the daughter of an art dealer with whom Johnson had an affair
Children with Carrie Symonds
•Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, one, born during the first lockdown
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•Daughter, born yesterday in London