Blavatnik has amassed a vast business empire, including Warner Music. This breach was referred to the National Crime Agency by the Information Commissioner, Elisabeth Denham. As Otto English has confirmed on Byline Times, his visits to Lebedevs infamous Tuscan parties on one occasion as Foreign Secretary without his security detail have spooked the spooks. A new type of newspaper independent, fearless, outside the system. "We are in no way funded by either government," he said, "receive no other support or direction, and are solely interested in promoting stronger trade, cultural and people to people ties. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Oliver wrote: The following weekend The Mail on Sunday has new allegations about him and a woman called Stephanie Hudson, a former soft porn actress. New to Byline Times? The Chelsea owners wealth is derived partly from proceeds from the controversial privatisation of the oil giant Sibneft after the fall of the Soviet Union. Dont miss a story! The inquiry, which the Bow Group says should be "independent of the Government and the Conservative Party", needed to consider the specific role Ms Symonds plays in Downing Street, details of . [35][36], On 29 February 2020, Symonds and Boris Johnson announced that they had become engaged in late 2019 and were expecting their first child together in early summer. Rajan, who has denied doing so, killed the story before it was put to King. But Nalobins most controversial role was helping to establish the Conservative Friends of Russia. In 2014, Whittingale was photographed in Ukrainian fancy dress in London with Maria Tymofienko, who styled herself in emails as Assistant to John WhittingdaleMP Chair All-Party ParliamentaryGroup on Ukraine. Find out more about us. John Whittingdale has for many years been a champion of Ukraine and one of the most outspoken MPs in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression.. Staines and his business partner, Jag Singh, who was active in Moscow during the 2011 election campaign, later worked for the Russian Embassy on political campaigning. Firtashs closeness to the Kremlin, his association with Trump consigliere-turned-convict Paul Manafort and his arrest warrant issued by the FBI are facts that can be reported and cannot be denied. Oliver continued: When Caroline Preston, No 10s head of broadcast, hears us talking about the Albanian model she jokes: Oh no! He learned espionage at the Red Banner Institute and joined the KGBs prestigious first directorate, specialising in foreign intelligence work. The company is seeking to build a controversial 1.2 billion electricity cable connecting Normandy with Lovedean in Hampshire as anxieties about the resilience of the British national grid continue. Boris Johnson is reportedly to marry his fiancee, Carrie Symond s, in July 2022 after sending save-the-date cards to family and friends, according to the Sun. Elements of the suppressed report have now leaked out. [24][25], Symonds became the Conservative Party's head of communications in 2018,[26] but left the position later that year,[17] taking up a job in public relations for the Oceana project. The press release was coincidental with the chair of the All-party parliamentary group on Russia being due for renewal.[8]. The DCMS is the lead department for policing our digital frontier and Whittingdale is in charge of its international strategy. Some have given money to political parties. Firtash posted 105 million bail money, the largest get-out-jail note in Austrian history. Udod was invited to a drinks party hosted by Banks on the night of the shock EU Referendum result in June 2016. [2][8] In July 2019, Johnson became prime minister and both he and Symonds officially moved into the flat above 11 Downing Street. As a Ukrainian living in the UK, I am a patriot and wished to assist my home country in a time of crisis. [28][2] These accusations were claimed by an anonymous "longtime colleague" to be a smear campaign allegedly spread by Symonds's political strategist, Lynton Crosby (subsequently denied by Crosby). Its chair, Nicholas Cobb, runs an energy communications firm focused on Russia and former Soviet republics, who has appeared on Russia Today as a pro-Moscow pundit. The committee estimated that the state-controlled channelsRTandSputniks pro-Leave websites garnered 134 million potential impressions nearly five times the reach of the two domestic campaigns combined (Vote Leave had 33 million impressions and Leave.EU had 11 million). "[59], In June 2022, an article by Simon Walters appeared in The Times alleging that Boris Johnson recommended Carrie, who was then his mistress, as a candidate for a 100,000 per annum job as Chief-of-Staff in the Foreign Office while Johnson was Foreign Secretary. Lebedev funded Russias independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Lord Barker of Battle, as he has been known since his elevation to the House of Lords, has also worked for another Russian businessman with the ear of Britains powerful elite, Oleg Deripaska. Nicholas Cobb, chairman of the (now) Westminster Russia Forum, wrote to. The Standard office is around the corner from where Lebedev worked in the 1980s as an undercover spy based at the Soviet embassy. His MEPs have consistently voted down sanctions packages for Russia over its invasion of eastern Ukraine. introduced several prominent Kremlin figures to senior Conservatives. 10 job and her friends take key jobs Meanwhile, Russian-born oligarchs remain close to the Prime Minister and his entourage. He described Russia's social life as "a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy". Ms Symonds wrote that the couple had a "baby hatching early s no less than 17 times between 2010 and 2014. invited him to meet the Russian Ambassador too, gold consolidation deal was pursued for several months, reported to be have been the handler of Russian spies in the UK, Bannon, Brexit, Johnson and Cambridge Analytica: the Daughter of Time, Boris Johnson and Donald Trumps Private Talks on Privatising the NHS Reveal Denials were Untrue, Suella Braverman to Address Radical 'National Conservatism' Event With Ties to US Right, Stereotyped and Belittled: Ukrainians Suffer from UK Asylum Policy, Demonising Inflation and the True Cost of Living. The Russian secret state collects sex kompromat. [7], The group's neutrality and support was questioned by the media, despite the group stating no political links or bias to Russia and made it clear that its funding comes from membership and events, by publishing its financial accounts. According to its chairman, Dominic Grieve, Boris Johnson personally blocked for bogus reasons the imminent publication of a cross-party report on Russia meddling in UK politics by Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). Though the gold consolidation deal was pursued for several months, Banks says he never took up any of these offers. Following a week in which Russia and its links to the UK have been in the news, the Guardian has looked into the impact of Soviet-born men and women on recent UK public life. usinesspeople born in the Soviet Union play a significant role in British business and politics. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [2], In 2009, Symonds joined the Conservative Party as a press officer. The forums organisers are overwhelmingly London-based, with business interests in Russia. Meanwhile, Lebedevs billionaire Moscow contemporary Alexander Mamut bought the bookshop chain Waterstones in 2011 for 53.5m. The former banker turns down interview requests and has not publicly explained why she has given the Conservative party more than 1.7m. Former German chancellor Gerhard Schrder has maintained that his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin are a valuable channel of communication. Whittingdale, then Culture Secretary, was in the room and appeared to take the gag well as he roared with laughter. Ben Wells, described by WRF as its in-house counsel, is a solicitor whose London law firm specialises in work for Russian-speaking clients. Find out more about us. [56] Journalist Sarah Vine, on the other hand, said that while it is easy to "blame the woman", the truth is "far more complicated", adding that Johnson's head did not deserve "to be on the block". There are also slight partisan differences in the U.S. on the choice of a close relationship with Russia or Germany. [21] She worked at Conservative Campaign Headquarters,[22] and later campaigned for Boris Johnson in the 2010 London Conservative Party mayoral selection. The Russia Report is scathing about the power of Moscow gold to win the hearts and minds of corrupt British figures, but the evidence remains in the shadows. ", "Tory pro-Russia lobbying group disbands", "Conservative Friends of Russia group disbands with immediate effect", "Who is Carrie Symonds? In recent years, Lebedev has come under scrutiny over his close personal ties with Boris Johnson. As speculation continues to abound over just how Boris Johnson funded the revamp at No 11, Tatler revisits our April cover story on Carrie Symonds - in which Anne McElvoy first revealed the details of the circumstances surrounding the makeover. Borodin denies this and says hes the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt. 10 intervened,[60] although Walters says that he stands by the story.[61]. In contrast to Temerko, Chernukhin keeps a low public profile. He and his second wife, childhood friend Marina Wheeler, had announced they were divorcing in 2018 after 25 . Guests included the then Tory staffer Carrie Symonds (now the Prime Minister's wife) and senior Conservative politicians such as John Whittingdale. Roman Abramovich, pictured in the stands at Chelsea FCs Stamford Bridge ground, in 2017 - the last year Chelsea won the Premier League. Nicholas Cobb, chairman of the (now) Westminster Russia Forum, wrote to supporters saying that it is with a great regret and sadness that the group is to be shut down. [51] Cummings also said that the prime minister "cancel[led] an inquiry about a leak because it might implicate his girlfriend's friends";[52] Cummings accused Henry Newman, the senior adviser in Downing Street and ally of Carrie Symonds, of being a "chatty rat" who leaked plans for a second lockdown in October. It has an active Twitter feed, echoing official lines from Kremlin-funded organisations although it has been uncharacteristically silent since Putins movement this week of recognising the separatist Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east of Ukraine, and since the start of todays invasion. Mamut replaced her with a pro-Kremlin journalist. Byline Times put a series of questions to John Whittingdale, including questions on his apparent links with Firtash, whether he should repay the 14,435, who paid for Ms Tymofienkos services and/or expenses, and whether his private life has made him vulnerable to kompromat. The forum originally launched as Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012, a political interest group for those with an interest in Russian politics, business, history and culture, with the aim of strengthening . 08/08/2022. [29][30], She is a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. Related: Elevenses: Maybe its because were little Englanders. It looks like Happy Families, Russia-style. The Times has reported that a fourth, controlling figure in Aquind has been granted rare anonymity by Companies House, despite anti-corruption rules promoting greater transparency in 2016. Lebdevev plus Carrie Johnson a founder member of Conservative Friends of Russia A few days later Number 10 had to deal again with the Culture Secretarys exotic home life. Lets examine the record of John Whittingdale, the Minister for Media and Data within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), responsible for defending us against Russias propaganda machine. He has received 24,500, according to Electoral Commission filings. In February, Chernukhin spent 45,000 on another game of tennis with Johnson and Ben Elliot, the Tories co-chair. The Bow Group said No 10 needed to. Alexander Lebedev (left) and his son Evgeny (right), with the former chancellor George Osborne in September last year, when Osborne was editor of the Evening Standard. Caroline Louise Beavan Johnson [3] [4] [5] ( ne Symonds; born 17 March 1988) is a British media consultant and the wife of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson. History. Westminster Russia Forum (WRF) was[1] a UK-wide voluntary organisation, which aims to promote improved relations with Russia. Two years later, at the UKIP Conference in October 2015, a senior embassy official, Alexander Udod, approached Farages new funder, Arron Banks, and invited him to meet the Russian Ambassador too. Raffle prizes included a biography of Putin and bottles of vodka. Ernest Reid, billed on the WRF website as its ambassador at large, has provided commentary for Russia Today and the WRF sympathetic to Russian foreign ministry objectives. [48][49][50], During Dominic Cummings's tenure as chief adviser, Cummings and Carrie Symonds were said to represent two separate factions influencing the prime minister. Cusick wrote that Amol Rajan had a problem. It was active in the campaign calling on the UK Foreign Office to allow British Arctic Veterans of World War Two to receive the Russian Ushakov Medal. But his return to the frontbench might be explained by the fact that his one-time special advisor was Carrie Symonds, the Prime Ministers partner and mother of his fifth or sixth child. We support the people of Ukraine and continue to stand with the people of Russia this war is not in their name and we will continue to support them in their time of need.. The controversial trip attracted significant adverse coverage and, after a further string of scandals, a number of Tory MPs who had been patrons all resigned, including Robert Buckland, Nigel Evans and former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind. Shortly afterwards, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who had served as a minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and was then chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, resigned from the group, saying he had been unhappy for some time about the group's behaviour and "political direction". As he recounts in his memoir, Hunt the Banker, the KGB approached Lebedev in his final year at university in Moscow. They include Alexander Temerko, a former Russian junior defence minister, and Lubov Chernukhin, a financier whose husband Vladimir served in Putins cabinet as deputy finance minister. After a power struggle, AAR eventually sold its half in the venture to Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft. View our Privacy PolicyandTerms & Conditions, TheLondonEconomic.com Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle. The Independent was a tenant of Associated Newspapers and the Mail group, Cusick suggested, liked Whittingdales policy of not implementing the full Leveson reforms on Fleet Street. Luke Hardings latest book Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russias Remaking of the West (Guardian Faber) is available from the Guardian Bookshop. In March 2014, Austrian authorities arrested Firtash on a multi-million bribery rap sought by the FBI. Alexander Temerko said he was no friend of Vladimir Putin. The payment was made by Henley Concierge, a firm registered to a cottage on Borodins 120m country estate near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. [6], In 2007, aged 19, Symonds was driven home from a King's Road nightclub by taxi-driver John Worboys, who in 2009 was convicted of multiple sexual assaults on his passengers. Firtashs silent business partner for some part of his career is alleged to have been Russias Al Capone-at-large, Semion The Brainy Don Mogilevich, himself linked to the Solntsevskaya Organized Crime Group. Matthew Elliott was a founding member. [2] She was brought up by her mother in East Sheen, South West London, and between 1999 and 2006 attended Godolphin and Latymer School, a private day school for girls. In an interview with the Guardian, Temerko said he was no friend of Putins, whom he called an enemy of democracy. To return to Keir Starmers question, should Britain ban RT? Given the weight of evidence, these are reasonable inquiries. The Conservatives have received more than 3m from wealthy Soviet-born donors - all of whom can legally give money to the party as British citizens. The first event was co-hosted with blogger Paul Staines. He would not be drawn on whether the Kremlin had interfered in the EU referendum vote in support of Leave, but said that he opposed Brexit. When Sibneft needed an international communications chief it turned to Greg Barker, who would go on to become Conservative energy minister under David Cameron. After the USSRs collapse, Lebedev went into banking and the media. It is clear in retrospect that the Russian attempt to intervene in British politics was a two-pronged affair. The BUS is headed by ex-MP Richard Spring, now Lord Risby; on the advisory board is Lord Oxford who as Raymond Asquith, MI6 officer, got Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky out of Russia in a car boot. UPDATE (9 March 2022): This article has been amended at the request of Ernest Reid to clarify his role within the WRF. His communications firm, New Century Media, founded a Positive Russia foundation to improve Moscows image in the UK. His appearances at the European Parliament are regularly covered by RT and he was asked onto the channel no less than 17 times between 2010 and 2014. In just over a week, the group says it will hold a Multilateral Relations Conference aimed at strengthening links between Russia and the UK. Westminster Russia Forum (WRF) was a UK-wide voluntary organisation, which aims to promote improved relations with Russia. In January 2020, Whittingdale received 8,000 from Aquind Ltd, the mysterious Russia-linked company planning a billion-pound undersea electricity grid connector between Britain and France which wont reveal the identity of the party that controls it. He spent 40,000 on a portrait of Margaret Thatcher. John Whittingdale was speaking at the same event just before him.. ", "A question for Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds: what is wrong with John Lewis? Think of the person behind the recent raft of Conservative animal welfare policies, and one name springs to mind - the Prime Minister's fiancee, Carrie Symonds.. One of the groups initial organisers in 2011 was Sergei Nalobin, a diplomat suspected of being a Russian agent. Spouse of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, 2010 London Conservative Party mayoral selection, Communities, Local Government and Housing Secretary, refurbishment of the 11 Downing Street flat, "Under new management: is Carrie Symonds the real power at No 10? It has existed in some form for a decade, yet is not required to register as a lobbyist, sparking fears that pro-Putin interests could be influencing opinion unchecked. All Rights Reserved. Nikolai Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) hernyshevsky distinguished himself as a publicist . There is also the prime. [9][10][11][12] She was the first unmarried partner of a prime minister to reside at Downing Street. A brief analysis of the data revealed that these accountstweeted about Brexit 1,525 times. She has lots of deeply loyal politico and journo friends. (Symonds now resides in Number 10 with Boris Johnson). Had Russia paid for a social media campaign of this scale, the committee estimated, it would have cost between 1.4 and 4.14 million. Back in April 2016, Whittingdales adventurous private life was the subject of a joke by then Chancellor George Osborne in a speech to the parliamentary lobby. In 2014, he fired its editor, Galina Timchenko, after she published an interview with a Ukrainian nationalist. [44], Concerns over her influence on the prime minister were raised in January 2020, when it came to light that she had received briefs from animal rights activists just before the government pulled a planned cull of badgers in Derbyshire. Friends with the Russians Evgeny's father, Alexander Lebedev, was a KGB agent at the Russian embassy in London in the 1980s, later working for its successor agency, the FSB. Businesspeople born in the Soviet Union play a significant role in British business and politics. [31], Symonds was the youngest of Worboys's victims, and waived her anonymity to talk about her experiences and, later, to campaign against his early release, fundraising for a successful judicial review of the decision. Sue Hawley, the director of Spotlight on Corruption, told openDemocracy: Its somewhat chilling that as the UK strikes a tough posture in relation to Russia it could leave such a blindspot at home.. You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER . U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson married fiance Carrie Symonds in a scaled down ceremony in Westminster Chapel Saturday that was kept secret in advance. ", "Carrie Johnson: Who is the prime minister's wife? It does indeed, most relevant given his various Russian connection. Alexander Lebedev bought the loss-making Evening Standard newspaper in 2009, installing his son Evgeny as proprietor. Blavatnik was born in Odessa, in Soviet Ukraine, but has renounced Russian citizenship and is a dual US-UK citizen. Concerns have been raised that unregulated pro-Moscow lobbyists at the heart of Westminster are using their links to Tory MPs to gain influence and respectability. Matthew Elliott, destined to become the chief executive of the official Vote Leave campaign, was a founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia and visited the Moscow Duma as part of a delegation. [45] She was also influential in making sure that Lee Cain did not get a job as the prime minister's chief of staff,[46] and urged Boris Johnson to fire environment secretary George Eustice from his role. [17][18] Her paternal grandfather was John Beavan, Baron Ardwick (at one time editor of the Daily Herald and later, during the 1970s, a Labour Party MEP), and her paternal grandmother was Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist. That October, Maria popped up in the House of Commons as the founder of the Global Friends of Ukraine (GFU), with patron John Whittingdale, who stuck the event on his website. Not another story about Whittingdale! I laugh about it all day.. The Tory peer received a bonus of $4m (3.14m) after helping Deripaska get the company removed from a list of firms hit by US sanctions. Nalobin, who now lives in a Moscow apartment block known as the FSB block, is the son of Nikolai Nalobin, a former KGB general. A gangster with a conviction for firearms was also reportedly going out with King at the same time as Whittingdale and was trying to sell tapes of King talking about what she did with the then Culture Secretary. 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. Our leading investigations include: empire & the culture war,Brexit, crony contracts,Russian interference,the Coronavirus pandemic,democracy in danger, andthe crisis in British journalism. Fund a better media. Symonds, a former Conservative head of communications, played a significant role in tearing down Johnson's old Number 10 and in advising the prime minister on how to put together a new one. Osborne listed the various economic models that could form the basis for Brexit the Canadian model, the Norwegian model, the Albanian model before adding that was enough about Mr Whittingdales relationships. Russias foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova went to his Moscow book launch. The group described itself as "an organisation created for those with an interest in Russian politics, business, history and culture, with the aim of strengthening relations between the British and Russian communities and informing political decision making within both countries. And we asked whether, given the 8,000 election money from Aquind came from an entity whose controlling party is unknown, he should repay that too. We also introduce new voices of colour in Our Lives Matter. He has made a fortune of close to 1bn by founding dating apps, including the female-focused Bumble and Badoo. At the end of November 2012 it emerged that the group's key contact at the Russian Embassy in London was First Secretary Sergey Nalobin, the son of a KGB/FSB general, whose brother also served in the FSB. [39][40] In July 2021, she announced that they were expecting their second child together, also revealing that she had suffered a miscarriage earlier that year. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. [6][7] She began an affair with Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, in 2018 while he was still married to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, wave from the steps of 10 Downing Street in London. Could he be their unwitting asset? [45] An association representing farmers, the NFU, asserted that this meeting and her influence played a key role in the government ignoring scientific advice in favour of retaining the cull. Carrie Johnson went on to become communications director for The Conservative Party aged 29, on a rumoured annual salary of 80,000. Other Ukrainians are critical of Whittingdale for evidently being closely connected to Firtash, given the latters chumminess with the Kremlin. Now a British citizen and major donor to the Conservative Party to the tune of 1.3 million, Temerko was born in Soviet Ukraine and became head of a Russian state arms company before coming to the UK in 2011. [58], In February 2022, Carrie Johnson's spokeswoman denied that Johnson has influence over her husband amidst allegations from Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, who had written an unauthorised biography of her. With MPs less likely to speak at the group in recent years, the WRF has turned its focus to working on public opinion. He later left Moscow and became a British citizen in 2011. Edward Lucas, a foreign policy expert on Russia, told openDemocracy: This is about as badly timed as possible, to be relaunching their events just as the invasion of Ukraine starts.. [38], Symonds married Boris Johnson on 29 May 2021 in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral attended by thirty guests. It also supplied the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) with a full report showing financial statements and minutes of meetings to demonstrate that there was no impropriety. Whittingdale was accompanied by an office aide, Carrie Symonds, who was promoted to special advisor when he moved into the Cabinet in 2015. She was a similar age and lived close to me. I was not remunerated. [9], The group's Board lost all of its Conservative MPs amid allegations of being too close to the Russian authorities and it was rebranded as the Westminster Russia Forum, a non-partisan group, which claims to promote an open platform to debate various issues such as international diplomacy, energy security and internal political systems. Ultimately he sold his shares for 550m in 2018 to the US sports tycoon Stan Kroenke. A former security official told the Byline Times he could absolutely confirm that members of the intelligence services are aware and concerned. They include Alexander Temerko, a former. Cummings is now Boris Johnsons senior advisor. In 2014, Reuters reported on documents that pointed to Putin extending credit lines to Firtash of up to $11 billion which helped the oligarch influence the 2010 Presidential Election in Ukraine. But, he said: This is the Monty Python end of Russian influence operations. Rival Shell also has interests in Russia via the huge Sakhalin-2 offshore gas project. Conservative Friends of Russia held its 2012 launch party in the Russian ambassador's Kensington garden, with about 250 Russian and British guests present, including Tories who went on to. This article was corrected to on 18 November 2019 when Jennifer Arcuri denied she attended the Russian Embassy Digital Barbecues. ", The group was launched in August 2012[2] at the Russian Embassy in London. Whittingdale did not register Maria as a Commons researcher. Hawley added: Friends of groups of political parties are alarmingly unregulated, and provide a back door for unofficial lobbying, access and paid influence. That deal left BP with a near-20% stake in the Kremlin-backed company, making cordial Russian relations vital for BP. [60][61] After senior aide Ben Gascoigne threatened to resign if she was appointed, the proposal was dropped. Minister John Whittingdale was the groups honorary vice-president when it first launched, he attended the opening with then office aide Carrie Symonds, now Carrie Johnson, wife of Prime Minister Johnson. Temerko has funded the constituency associations of several leading Tory MPs, including the business secretary, Alok Sharma, and Mark Pritchard. Though he at first denied it, Farage met the Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko in May 2013. Boris Johnson has maintained a close relationship with the proprietor of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev himself the son of a former KGB spy. An investigation by Reuters, based on conversations with Temerko, alleges that he supported Johnsons campaign to take Britain out of the EU at least initially. Under its original name, the Conservative Friends of Russia, the group facilitated a ten-day, all-expenses-paid junket to Russia in 2012, paid for by the Russian tourist government. The then foreign secretary left his security detail behind and was spotted at the airport on his way home, dishevelled and hungover. Ms Symonds previously worked as head of press at Conservative Campaign Headquarters. It tried to fuel social divisions, including religious tensions, in the aftermath of the Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park terror attacks, it stated.