RICHARD KAY: A surreal playground awaits for Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ first child

For an infant it is a princely playground, from the private walled garden to the giant nursery installed by a predecessor but one. 

But while this child-friendly idyll may be the perfect place to raise a baby, it is also a surreal one. 

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds‘ new born son will be welcomed into a world where his first companions will be the custodians, gardeners and policemen who keep Downing Street ticking over. 

It is they who will witness his first steps and daily excursions pushed in a pram to St James’s Park. 

Mealtimes will echo to the constant tread of civil servants switching between No 11 – where baby Johnson and his parents will live on two spacious floors – and the office next door at No 10 from where his father runs the country. 

Although he is the third child to be born to a serving prime minister this century – Leo Blair in 2000 and Florence Cameron in 2010 are the others – he nevertheless joins an exclusive club of babies born when their father was PM. 

In the weeks to come the clutter of the nursery, nappies, babygrows and toys will pile up alongside the in-trays of government papers and the red boxes of the First Lord of the Treasury. 

Welcome to the complicated family life of Prime Minister Johnson and his fiancée, who has already acquired the teasing nickname FLOTUS – as in First Lady of the United States – from those who feel that at 32 Carrie has a little too much ambition for her own good. 

Motherhood, however, might be about to change all that. For Boris there will be precious little time to get to know his latest child. Downing Street have made clear there will be no paternity leave. 

He has, however, told staff he will be changing nappies. 

The No 11 apartment where the child will be brought up is certainly big enough with five bedrooms, and a sleekly modern stainless steel kitchen and living area set in an open plan arrangement designed by a previous incumbent, Samantha Cameron. 

It was Mrs Cameron who also configured a playroom for her three children. When she first arrived baby Florence did not have a cot so she slept in a cardboard box with her name stencilled on the side by her sister Nancy. 

Later as she grew up Florence took to propelling herself along the carpeted corridors connecting No 10 and 11 on a pink scooter, stopping to visit members of staff who gave her sweets. 

But like No 10, No 11 is a working environment. On the floors below the family’s apartment are the offices of the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and his staff. 

Of course there will be one playmate for the new baby, Dilyn, Boris and Carrie’s Jack Russell cross terrier. For the new parents – and dog owners – their secluded garden, reached down a private staircase will be a welcome refuge. 

In David Cameron’s time the garden was often filled with toys – as he suggested to Boris and Carrie in a congratulatory message on Twitter: ‘Sam and I are thrilled for you both! Sorry we didn’t leave the cot – but the climbing frame should still be in the garden!’ 

The couple are giving little away about what kind of child care they will have and whether there will be a nanny. Indeed such was the level of secrecy surrounding the baby’s birth yesterday that it was being likened to that of Archie to Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex. 

Like the royal birth, no details were given about where the PM’s baby was born – apart from the fact that it was at a London NHS hospital. Though the Palace released Archie’s weight, we have yet to learn baby Johnson’s. 

Tony Blair talked of how baby Leo in the earliest days was carried from room to room ‘from the switchboard to the foreign policy unit’ during his time in office, though David Cameron said that after his daughter was born his wife ‘went off the scene’ with her for a bit to stay with her parents. 

Yet for Florence Cameron, No 10 became home and she didn’t want to leave. She was almost six when her father resigned and as the family moved out she tried to attach herself to the railings saying: ‘I don’t want to go.’ 

An insider says: ‘In many ways living in Downing Street is great. You’re not isolated like some new mothers are, and you’ve got all the mod cons and if you are in a jam people around to help. 

‘But Downing Street is a very busy workplace. Then there is the security, wonderful in so many ways but also so restricting. Remember it’s effectively a fortress with armed police patrolling outside and there can be no easy comings and goings.’ 

Baby supplies will need to be ordered and delivered and any excursion outside the perimeter planned and carefully executed. The baby’s arrival will also mean additional police security to protect both him and his mother. 

All this will take getting accustomed to. There has been speculation that Carrie might have been tempted to spend the early days of motherhood away from the frenzy of Numbers 10 and 11, for example at Chequers, the PM’s country residence. 

But I understand her view is that she is determined that Boris – who’ll be at No 10 – should be as involved as he possibly can be in their son’s first weeks. 

At almost 56, Boris will be by some distance Downing Street’s oldest new father, while Carrie, nearly 24 years his junior, will be one of its youngest mothers. 

That the girl nicknamed Apples on account of her luscious cheeks will be able to cope is not in doubt. She is, say friends, vivacious, capable and very driven. ‘Some would call her ruthless,’ says one of her circle. 

‘I prefer focused. She makes a plan and she sticks to it.’ 

Was the baby a plan? ‘Almost certainly yes, it sealed the deal didn’t it?’ 

All in all it has been a remarkable journey for the girl from sedate East Sheen to Downing Street and it involved overcoming the prejudice of being the product of an out-of-marriage love affair and being raised by a single parent. 

Her parents are Matthew Symonds, 66, one of the founders of the Independent newspaper and Josephine Mcaffee, 71, who was then one of the newspaper’s lawyers. 

Both were married to other people at the time of their affair and nor did they ever marry. 

Carrie was born in London in 1988 – four months later her father’s wife gave birth to her half-sister (she has two other half siblings) – and was brought up by her mother in a three bedroom town house in a leafy corner of south-west London. 

Her father provided financial assistance but, according to friends, was never much of a presence in her life. And it will be her mother on whom Carrie leans in these early days of maternity. 

In the meantime, however, she can rely on any number of people in Downing Street for help. As for her child, life there is likely to be a ball. ‘He will be treated like a little prince,’ says a friend of the PM. ‘How can he not be?’

From near-death to paternity… Virus survivor Boris won’t take leave yet (but he will be on nappy-change duty) 

By Jason Groves, Political Editor for the Daily Mail 

Boris Johnson has delayed his paternity leave – but will help change his new son’s nappies, friends said last night. 

In a surprise announcement just weeks after he fought coronavirus in intensive care, the Prime Minister and his fiancee Carrie Symonds revealed the arrival of their baby boy yesterday morning. 

Miss Symonds gave birth at an undisclosed NHS hospital in London amid tight secrecy. The child is the 32-year-old’s first. The Prime Minister, 55, is thought to have at least five other children from previous relationships. 

He was present at the birth and asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons at midday. But he was back in Downing Street by lunchtime and later had an audience with the Queen by phone, as well as talks on coronavirus with new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. 

Miss Symonds and the baby, who has not yet been named, were not expected home last night. The birth comes just over a fortnight after Mr Johnson was released from hospital following a serious brush with coronavirus, which he later said ‘could have gone either way’. 

Miss Symonds was also hit by symptoms of the virus earlier this month. The PM only returned to Downing Street on Sunday night, following a two-week convalescence at his country retreat Chequers. 

Mr Johnson said last month that he would ‘almost certainly’ take paternity leave when the baby was born. 

But with the coronavirus crisis at a critical stage, No 10 last night said this would now be postponed. His press secretary said: ‘I expect the Prime Minister to take a short period of paternity leave later in the year.’ 

However sources said the PM had told friends he ‘would be changing nappies’. 

The baby was born exactly nine months after the couple moved in to Downing Street last summer when Mr Johnson became PM. They announced they were expecting a child two months ago. 

In a statement at the time, a spokesman said the baby was expected ‘in early summer’. The arrival in late April prompted speculation it might have been born prematurely. 

No details were released about the baby’s weight, but both mother and child were said to be ‘doing very well’. 

Downing Street declined to say whether the baby was born prematurely and the spokesman was unable to provide details of the weight, timing, nature or location of the birth. 

The couple are thought to have travelled to the hospital on Tuesday night. Throughout the evening, No 10 refused to say whether Mr Johnson would be taking part in Prime Minister’s Questions. 

It prompted speculation that the PM might be struggling with his health. But, in a statement just before 10am yesterday, a spokesman for the couple said: ‘The Prime Minister and Miss Symonds are thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby boy. Both mother and baby are doing very well. 

‘The PM and Miss Symonds would like to thank the fantastic NHS maternity team.’ 

The new family are planning to live in their Downing Street flat with their dog Dilyn. 

The couple made history as the first unmarried couple to live in Downing Street last summer, after Mr Johnson won the Conservative leadership contest. 

Their son is the third baby born to a serving prime minister in recent history. Tony Blair’s wife Cherie gave birth to their fourth child, Leo, in 2000, and David and Samantha Cameron welcomed daughter Florence in 2010. 

The PM’s biographer, Andrew Gimson, told the BBC Mr Johnson’s attitude to children was ‘more the merrier… he’s certainly not getting into numbers’.