AND THEN THERE WERE SIX

Boris Johnson will be adding to his already sizeable brood when his fiancée Carrie Symonds gives birth later this year

- SANDY COOK

THE news dropped at a time when Britain’s No 1 citizen was facing flak on all fronts – his no-show to support victims of recent flooding in the UK, his reaction to the coronavirus crisis and the ongoing drama around Brexit. So when it emerged Boris Johnson and his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, were expecting a baby – and getting married too at some stage – it was a welcome break from the bad stuff.

Like a good millennial, Carrie (31) took to Instagram to announce the happy news.

“Many of you already know but for my friends that still don’t, we got engaged at the end of last year. And we’ve got a baby hatching early summer.

“Feel incredibly blessed.” Boris (55) is said to be “absolutely delighted” at the thought of another little Johnson and many Britons expressed their happiness for the pair.

Others, however, were a little more circumspect – including the prime minister’s sister.

Rachel Johnson (54), who often doesn’t see eye to eye with her blustering brother and who has apparently never met Carrie, was discussing Brexit on a TV show when she suddenly veered off-topic.

She called the pregnancy “the withdrawal agreement that went wrong”.

When the interviewer explained that “Boris Johnson is expecting his next child,” Rachel retorted, “He isn’t but he Which pretty much says how much respect she has for her big brother.

Yet she may have a point: Boris is famously cagey about the number of children he’s brought into the world – five is the known number but there have long been rumours that there could be more out there.

Someone else who’s less than impressed with the new baby announcement is Marina Wheeler, a respected lawyer who was married to Boris for 27 years.