Boris Johnson’s friends believe he is worried about affording a nanny after taking pay cut: ‘He doesn’t have a housekeeper’

Salary fell when he became prime minister

Friends of Boris Johnson believe he is worried about how to afford a nanny after taking a pay cut to become prime minister on a salary of around £150,000 a year.

The Conservative leader became a father again earlier this year when his fiancee Carrie Symonds gave birth to a son, Wilfred.  

But an ally of Mr Johnson told The Times that, like other prime ministers before him, he was “very, very badly served”.

They said: “He doesn't have a housekeeper, he has a single cleaner and they're worried about being able to afford a nanny. He's stuck in the flat and Downing Street is not a nice place to live.

"It's not like the Élysée or the White House where you can get away from it all because they're so big. Even if he or Carrie want to go into the rose garden they have to go through the office."

Mr Johnson was also said to be financially supporting, to differing degrees, four of his six children.

As a highly paid columnist for The Daily Telegraph, public speaker and backbench Tory MP,  Mr Johnson was reported to earn more than £350,000 a year.

His new salary of around £150,000 is a significant cut to do the job he has dreamed of since he was a child.

Conservative MPs are also understood to be surprised at the prime minister’s appearance, after he lost a significant amount of weight in recent weeks.

Mr Johnson spoke publicly about being overweight as he urged Britons to slim down before a possible second wave of coronavirus this year.

Tory MPs are also concerned about the toll the coronavirus crisis is taking on the prime minister, who was in intensive care himself with the disease barely six months ago.