Carrie Johnson and the curious case of the vanishing Times story

At first glance, the story appeared to be the political scoop of the weekend.

On Saturday, the Times reported that Boris Johnson had tried to hire his now wife as his chief of staff when he was foreign secretary.

But almost as soon as the article hit the printers, it was withdrawn, without explanation or clarification.

The piece, written by veteran lobby journalist Simon Walters, formerly of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, appeared on page five of some early print copies of Saturdays Times newspaper but was dropped for later editions.

It does not appear that the article was ever published on the Times website.

The story expanded on claims in a biography of Carrie Johnson by Tory donor and peer Lord Ashcroft that Johnson had tried to appoint her to a 100,000-a-year government job when he was foreign secretary in 2018.

It said the idea had fallen apart when his closest advisers learned of the idea to hire the Tory press chief, then known as Carrie Symonds, who he later married. Johnson was then still married to Marina Wheeler, a barrister.

A source with knowledge of the situation told the Guardian this account was true.