Johnson, fiancee announce birth of 'healthy baby boy'

London, April 29

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds on Wednesday announced the birth of a ‘healthy baby boy’. The birth is believed to be slightly premature but both mother and baby are said to be doing very well.

It is understood that Johnson, who has just recovered from coronavirus, was present throughout the birth, at a government-run hospital in London.Johnson is set to miss his first Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons with the newly-elected Opposition Labour Leader Keir Starmer, who congratulated the UK PM on the “wonderful news”.

“The Prime Minister and Symonds are thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby boy at a London hospital earlier this morning,” a spokesperson for the couple said on Wednesday.

The news comes days after Johnson, 55, returned to 10 Downing Street on Monday after his hospitalisation for complications from COVID-19. He had been recuperating at his Chequers countryside retreat in Buckinghamshire, where he had been joined by his pregnant fiancee.

The 32-year-old Symonds had been previously self-isolating with the couple’s dog Dilyn after she developed symptoms of coronavirus but later revealed she was “on the mend”.

The couple had announced their engagement at the end of February, when it was also revealed that they were expecting their first baby in the summer.

The baby becomes the third to be born to a British Prime Minister in office.

Symonds, who works for an ocean conservation charity Oceana, met Johnson during her time as the communications chief for the Conservative Party when he was the Mayor of London in 2012. In July 2019, they became the first unmarried couple to move into Downing Street together.

The news of their impending wedding and baby were made public soon after Johnson’s divorce from his Indian-origin ex-wife Marina Wheeler was finalised in February. PTI