Emails Reveal Lobbying Efforts Involving Prime Minister’s Wife Carrie Johnson
A conservation charity led by a Conservative Party donor, who employed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s partner Carrie Johnson, has been revealed to have lobbied the government for assistance in acquiring a game reserve in Africa.
Carrie Johnson took on the role of director of communications at the Aspinall Foundation just months after the charity reached out to environment minister Zac Goldsmith for government backing to purchase the wildlife reserve in South Africa, according to emails obtained by The Telegraph.
These communications also indicate that Damian Aspinall, the head of the Aspinall Foundation, contacted Lord Goldsmith regarding support for British zoos following the Covid lockdown. In an April 2020 correspondence, Lord Goldsmith informed officials at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) that he had been in discussions with Aspinall about the challenges facing zoos during the pandemic.
The Tory peer, who serves as the minister for animal welfare, stated that Mr. Aspinall requested that employees of zoos affected by the abrupt closures be treated as if they had been laid off.