Boris Johnson's ex-wife Marina Wheeler to advise Labour Party in surprise twist

08 October 2023 , 07:35

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Marina Wheeler KC was married to the former PM for 25 years before they split in 2018 (Image: PA)

Boris Johnson's ex-wife and leading barrister Marina Wheeler is set to be appointed Labour's new "whistleblowing tsar" for women.

In a coup for the Labour leader Keir Starmer, the senior lawyer will offer advice to the party on protections for women against abusive colleagues. The party plans to give women subjected to harassment at work "whistleblower" status to encourage them to come forward with complaints without fear of being penalised for speaking out.

Ms Wheeler KC, an expert in employment law, told The Independent it was a "privilege" to help Labour protect women and was "delighted" to be working with the Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry on the issue. She said women "too often suffer sexual harassment and assault and they pay a heavy price for speaking out", adding: "Knowing this, and to keep their jobs, they suffer in silence".

Labour frontbencher Ms Thornberry will set out the plans in her speech on Tuesday to the party's annual conference in Liverpool. She is expected to tell delegates: "That is the difference between a Tory government that pretends to care about women's rights, and a Labour Party that delivers them."

Ms Wheeler separated from Mr Johnson after 25 years of marriage in 2018 - a year before he succeeded Theresa May in No10. She is the second high-profile woman from outside party politics to advise Labour. The former senior civil servant Sue Gray, whose report into lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street during Mr Johnson's tenure contributed to his downfall, as Labour's chief of staff this summer.

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It came as Mr Starmer used an interview with The Mirror to set out his plans to save the NHS if Labour wins power at the next election, with a £1.5billion fund to cut record waiting lists. He said clearing the appointment backlog of almost eight million desperate patients is the right thing to do and is “absolutely necessary for our NHS”.

The Labour leader said: “I think everybody knows someone who’s on the NHS waiting list. And I’m certainly not immune from that. This is a period of high anxiety for individuals – huge personal discomfort in many cases. “And it’s also a major factor behind our failure on economic growth as there are too many people who aren’t at work because they haven’t had the operations that they need. Since the Prime Minister said he was going to get the numbers down, they’ve just gone up. So we need a plan to fix this.”

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Ashley Cowburn