After Boris Johnson announced that he is set to divorce his wife over cheating claims, Conservative MPs speculated that the ex-foreign secretary could be “clearing the decks” by letting negative stories about him be disclosed to challenge Theresa May, the incumbent prime minister, at an impending Tory leadership election, The Financial Times reported.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson Gets Tossed Out by His Wife After Cheating Accusation — Reports
The Sun also cited an unnamed source suggesting it was in Johnson’s “interests to get this news out there” so that his enemies can’t use it during the leadership contest.
Taking into account the fact that this isn’t the first time that Marine Wheeler has suspected her husband of 25 years of cheating, The Sun’s revelations would unlikely affect Johnson’s ambition to succeed Theresa May.
Meanwhile, James Duddridge, a Tory Brexit proponent, suggested that it meant that “any lumps and bumps in a leadership election will be focused on the issues, not on the personalities. Boris remains a presumptive candidate to replace Theresa May.”
According to The Financial Times, recent polls of Conservative Party members have shown that Boris Johnson is the most popular alternative to May. Johnson tendered his resignation in protest at Theresa May’s Chequers Agreement on the UK’s divorce from the EU just hours after Brexit Secretary David Davis left his post.
Fresh Rumors of a Fling
The Sun has recently revealed more details on the alleged mistress: then-Foreign Secretary BoJo was pictured dining and wining with a blonde aide on Valentine’s Day – at a time when he was purportedly supposed to be overloaded with work over Brexit negotiations.
“Boris was in the news at the time. So it was quite the shock to see him walking into the restaurant with an attractive blonde. Two police protection officers sat in chairs close to the front door of the restaurant. They were not eating and looked pretty peeved to be there. Boris and the blonde sat in a cosy corner table and appeared to be drinking from wine glasses. It seemed quite an intimate meal and hardly anything to do with any great matters of the state. It was quite a strange day to be meeting a young attractive woman for a meal in one of London’s most exclusive restaurants,” Valentine’s Day diner at Rules in Covent Garden told The Sun.
Some insiders also told the media outlet that his love affair with the aide had been an “open secret” among some government advisers.
“Rumors about the two of them have been rife for some time. I think they may have only got together fairly recently. We were waiting for the news about Boris and Marina to break as I think the divorce papers were going to be served before party conference. But The Sun’s story took everyone by surprise,” The Sun cited an unnamed source as saying.
As rumors of an extramarital affair between Johnson and the blonde aide gripped the Parliament, Johnson and his wife issued a short statement to announce their looming divorce.
“Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead,” the statement read.
The split is believed to have taken place weeks before Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary.