Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses with his wife Carrie Johnson in the garden of 10 Downing Street following their wedding at Westminster Cathedral. Photo / Getty Images
Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses with his wife Carrie Johnson in the garden of 10 Downing Street following their wedding at Westminster Cathedral. Photo / Getty Images
This may not be Boris Johnson's first wedding celebration (he's had a few) but it is likely to be his grandest, and most romantic.
Photographs taken on Wednesday showed preparations are well underway for this weekend's party to celebrate the Prime Minister's marriage to Carrie Johnson, with whom he has two children.
The images show a huge marquee in a field on the 1500-acre (607ha) estate of Daylesford House, the country retreat of Lord Bamford, a friend of the Johnsons and a Conservative party donor.
A large gazebo has been erected at the rear of the house, a Georgian Grade 1 listed mansion in the Cotswolds, while an orchard cut out into a heart shape may also provide a romantic backdrop to a party long overdue.
The couple had intended to celebrate their wedding at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country retreat, but the furore following his forced resignation scuppered those plans. Lord Bamford stepped in at the eleventh hour to rescue the event, providing a backdrop every bit as grand as had been planned.
Sources told The Telegraph on Wednesday night that Carrie Johnson, 34, is "very much" in charge of the guest list for a party that follows more than a year on from their actual wedding at Westminster Cathedral in May 2021. The couple were then able to invite 30 guests under Covid restrictions and many of those will be back this time for a party expected to cater for some 150 to 200 people.
A marquee is erected on the grounds of Daylesford House in Gloucestershire for Boris Johnson and wife Carrie. Photo / Getty Images
Well-placed sources said the wedding guest list will not be "political", with many of Boris Johnson's closest advisers in Downing Street not invited to the bash. His one-time close friend Michael Gove, who was sacked after telling Boris Johnson to resign in the wake of a Cabinet and ministerial revolt, is also off the guest list. Gove did not attend the original wedding a year ago.
It is unclear too if Boris Johnson's four children from his second marriage to Marina Wheeler will attend. Friends say relations remain fractious after Boris Johnson, 58, left their mother for his then-lover Carrie Symonds.
The Prime Minister's siblings are expected along with his father Stanley, who also went to the Downing Street wedding party last May.
Carrie Johnson's closest friends are understood to be attending, among them Nimco Ali, a human rights campaigner, and Josh Grimstone, a one-time special adviser to Gove. Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, with whom Carrie Johnson has worked in the past as a Tory party strategist, is also understood to be going.
Of Boris Johnson's close friends, Hugo Dixon, an Old Etonian once described as a "turbocharged Remainer" is also set to be among the guests.
Downing Street has refused to be drawn on the guest list or the details of the wedding such as the entertainment and the speeches. A Number 10 spokesman said: "We do not comment on speculation regarding private or family matters which do not involve any ministerial declarations or taxpayer funds."
Lord Bamford and his wife Lady Carole Bamford, who set up the Daylesford Organic farm brand, are likely to be in attendance, not least because their home will host the event. Lord Bamford is chairman of JCB, one of whose diggers Boris Johnson drove through a wall to emphasise his desire to Get Brexit Done back in December 2019. The stunt was as memorable as the Johnsons' wedding party is likely to be.
