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Domestic Quarrel Disrupts Boris Johnson's Britain Leadership Bid

Jamie Dettmer

   A plate-hurling, screaming quarrel with his latest girlfriend has
   turned the spotlight fully on where Boris Johnson's advisers didn't
   want it -- on his character and chaotic private life, which even his
   friends have described as "unruly."

   The altercation, recorded by neighbors in south London who phoned the
   police, has thrown a wrench into Johnson's smooth-running campaign to
   succeed Theresa May as Britain's prime minister, which commentators say
   is his race to lose.

   His bid to win a leadership contest, which is now in its final stages
   after lawmakers whittled down in knockout ballots the succession choice
   to two candidates for the party's 160,000 members to vote on by mail,
   has been built on avoiding television debates and dodging journalists.

   Johnson has refused to answer questions about the screaming match in
   the apartment of his girlfriend, 31-year-old Carrie Symonds, but calls
   are mounting on the 55-year-old to address questions about the
   altercation on Friday.

   Johnson ended a 25-year-long marriage, his second divorce, to move in
   last year with the younger Symonds, but his unruly private life has
   been marked by serial relationships, children fathered out of wedlock
   and terminated pregnancies.

   The quarrel has allowed his remaining opponent in the leadership race,
   the country's current and normally mild-mannered foreign minister,
   Jeremy Hunt, to pile on the pressure and to launch Monday an
   uncharacteristically personal attack on his rival, accusing him of
   being a "coward" by trying to avoid public scrutiny and "slink through
   the back door" of Downing Street.

   Johnson, who was finally backed by more than half of Conservative
   lawmakers to be the new party leader has appeared on only one TV debate
   and granted a single short broadcast interview and one newspaper
   interview. Hunt says the public want a "fair and open contest, not one
   that one side is trying to rig to avoid scrutiny."

   He added: "One of the strengths of our system is that we scrutinize our
   politicians with more intelligent ferocity than anywhere else in the
   World. But in this case it just isn't happening. Nothing could be worse
   for a new prime minister in these challenging times than to come to
   power with a fake contest."

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