Carrie Symonds named Peta’s ‘person of the year’

For her work protecting animals, Boris Johnson’s fiancee has received an award from a leading animal rights group

Carrie Symonds has been voted Peta’s ‘person of the year' (Getty Images)

Boris Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds has been named “person of the year” by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta).

The animal rights group said Symonds was “a fearless force for good” as she advocates for, and condemns the mistreatment of, animals. 

The partner of the PM has previously called for an end to “wet markets”, where animals are sold for consumption and as pets, and this year got major supermarkets to stop selling products that were made by harming animals, including monkeys in Southeast Asia.

Symonds got behind a campaign that boycotted Thailand’s coconut products made using monkey "slave labour”.  A series of tweets from the self-confessed “animal lover” came after a PETA Asia investigation found monkeys were being kept in cramped cages and being forced to climb trees in Southeast Asia.

Shaming big retailers on Twitter she posted: “Glad Waitrose, Co-op, Boots & Ocado have vowed not to sell products that use monkey labour, while Morrisons has already removed these from its stores,

“Come on @asda, @tesco and @sainsburys: Please tell us you’re NOT selling any products that use monkey slave labour”. 

Symonds is against trophy hunting and is a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Association, for which she took part in an anti-whaling demonstration at London’s Japanese Embassy in 2019.

“Carrie Symonds is a fearless force for good when it comes to making the world a kinder place for animals,” said Peta’s managing director Ingrid Newkirk.

While leading the communications team for the Conservative Party, Symonds promoted policies on the environment and animal welfare, before leaving to join the team at the Oceana project, which works to protect and conserve the world’s oceans. She has also used her platform to raise concerns about plastic pollution.

“The truth is a great deal of plastic simply CAN’T be recycled and it’s often far cheaper not to bother,” she tweeted before the pandemic, “the only way to really cut down on plastic pollution is to produce less of the stuff in the first place.”

Carrie Symmonds and Boris Johnson share a dog named Dilyn who lives with them at 10 Downing Street. The pair got their Jack Russell cross from Friends of Animals Wales, which rescued him before he was put down.