Boris Johnson and girlfriend Carrie Symonds engaged and expecting a baby

PM’s new fiancee feeling ‘incredibly blessed’ as she announces ‘we’ve got a baby hatching’

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds are engaged and expecting their first child together.

The announcement means Mr Johnson will become the first prime minister to marry in office for 250 years.

“I wouldn’t normally post this kind of thing on here but I wanted my friends to find out from me,” Ms Symonds wrote on Instagram.

“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.”

The child will be the first for Ms Symonds and the prime minister’s sixth, that he has publicly acknowledged.

He has four children with his ex-wife Marina Wheeler and a daughter from an extra-marital affair, but is also believed to have fathered another child outside of his marriage.

Earlier in February, a family court judge gave Ms Wheeler permission to apply for a divorce decree after the pair agreed on a financial settlement.

Former Tory communications chief and conservationist Ms Symonds has been associated with Mr Johnson since she worked on his successful re-election campaign as London’s mayor in 2012, and the pair were first romantically linked in 2019.

Mr Johnson, 55, and Miss Symonds, 31, made history as the first unmarried couple to officially live together in Downing Street when they moved in last year.

“Boris and Carrie are both delighted at this news,” The Sun quoted a No 10 official as saying. “They have both known for a while but have kept it under wraps until the pregnancy progressed.”

“It partly explains why he has been lying low recently, although he works flat out and that won’t change. Carrie is thrilled and she will also continue to work on her environmental projects.”

The prime minister has been accused of hiding in recent days amid severe flooding across the country, and a looming coronavirus outbreak in the UK.

As the pair announced their news, congratulations poured in – including from Sajid Javid, who resigned as chancellor earlier this month amid a power struggle with Mr Johnson. “Congratulations Carrie Symonds [and] Boris Johnson wonderful news!” Mr Javid tweeted.

But others questioned the timing of the announcement.

Hours before the news broke, the most senior civil servant in the Home Office quit dramatically and threatened to sue the government, lending weight to allegations of bullying against home secretary Priti Patel.

Sir Philip Rutnam accused Ms Patel of having “created fear” at the department and said he had reports of her “shouting and swearing, belittling people [and] making unreasonable and repeated demands”.

Additional reporting by agencies