hatever the third Mrs Johnson’s previous impression upon public life, her contribution as a married woman is already remarkable. Single-handedly, following last week’s May-December themed wedding, Carrie Johnson, nee Symonds, has stimulated something almost resembling popular interest in a G7 summit, specifically the one happening in Cornwall later this week. In a striking departure from tradition, Mrs Johnson’s conventionally thankless role as G7 hostess – leading docile partners on vaguely cultural or gastronomic trips – is being depicted as if it were central to the proceedings of a keenly anticipated event. It must be bitter indeed for predecessors including Cherie Blair, Sarah Brown and, last time, Brigitte Macron, who doggedly performed this duty, routinely unappreciated though sometimes mocked, to find the traditional Stepford role, now it is occupied by a millennial zoo PR, suddenly recognised as not remotely humiliating but diplomatically vital, a position of rare dignity and global reach. Nobody, for instance, cared when Cherie Blair, breaking with tradition (though not to the point of refusing the gig), “decided to give my wives a rather more serious programme”. One night, “a group from the Royal Shakespeare Company gave us Shakespeare’s Women, which went down very well”. Now, with Mrs Johnson’s marriage supplying, just in time, her crowning qualification for national representation, there is excited talk of a “world stage” on which, according to some especially terrifying reports, Britain’s “first lady” (having already extinguished the Queen) is predicted to “play a central role in forging relationships with the UK’s international allies”. Though it will not please all UK citizens (certainly not those who believed Dominic Cummings on Mrs Johnson’s priorities when dog trouble coincided with bombing and the pandemic), her eminence must look promising for G7 visitors seeking direct, informal influence. But what is Mrs Johnson like and what will she organise? Are there subjects to avoid? Is there any risk, as at her wedding, of a barefoot dress code, even of hay bales? Some pre-summit briefing notes may help. On entertainment, we assume some standard Cornish outings, anything from Tate St Ives and cream teas to an enactment of the duchy’s colourful best-bids ritual, featuring an estate agent and some legendary Cornish characters, if the guests are lucky, such as Gordon Ramsay and David Cameron. Security considerations may rule out a display of massed SUV reversing. Background Mrs Johnson, 33, is a professional publicist, formerly for the Tory party where, the story romantically goes, she fell for Mr Johnson, 56, the then foreign secretary and father of five children who would shortly liberate himself from the mother of four of them. Her G7 companions, mostly in their 60s or more, can relax then, about any generational differences. Far from it: older people propelled Mrs and Mr Johnson into their recently refurbished address. Yet more reassuringly, a concern for elder welfare is among Mrs Johnson’s noted qualities. From early on, she was seen escorting Mr Johnson’s father, Stanley, a task from which many women would recoil, on and off platforms; her 30th birthday celebrations featured a delegation of conspicuously mature visitors – John Whittingdale, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Mr Johnson, naturally – whose company, again, may not appeal to less caring thirtysomethings. Reporting of the same event indicates that G7 diplomats and spouses including Jill Biden (70), Mariko Suga (67), Brigitte Macron (68) and Serena Cappello (73) may find a working knowledge of the Abba repertoire helps bring their countries closer to the UK. Mrs Johnson is currently head of communications for the Aspinall Foundation, the latest iteration of a fatal accident-prone private zoo founded by John Aspinall, a gambling magnate with a fondness for eugenics. Talk to her, instead, about his love of apex predators. Political influence This is increasingly understood as disproportionate, democratically outrageous and probably irreversible. Earlier objections – that Mrs Johnson’s critics were merely sexist – seem to have dwindled following credible accounts of her political achievements, which range from overriding official advice and replacing disliked senior staff with favourites to the promotion of animal welfare. Her allies, according to a Times report following her wedding, are in the No 10 ascendant: “Boris would lose in any war with Carrie…” Mrs Johnson’s organisation of a secret ceremony in a Catholic church which has virtuously denied that sacrament to similarly constituted couples, one that from that sacred perspective delegitimises all Mr Johnson’s children save her own, has been perceived as further proof of Machiavellian genius. Busy leaders may accordingly prefer to request bilaterals with Mrs rather than Mr Johnson. Interests Animals, as above, and in particular the Johnsons’ dog, Dilyn, whom Mrs Johnson is grooming, via a carefully curated public image, into a fellow habitué of the world stage. G7 delegates should bear in mind that any disrespect towards this animal amounts, effectively, to a hostile act and will be treated as such. As for other species: the lives of badgers and otters are peculiarly cherished by Mrs Johnson, the happiness of game and cows, for reasons probably not worth investigating in Cornwall, less so. Mrs Johnson’s similarly idiosyncratic if lavishly publicised take on sustainability may make this subject, too, best avoided. The Johnson version shuns, for instance, single-use plastics and party dresses, but unapologetically subscribes to obsolescence in despised furnishings, while also tolerating long-haul air travel when this is vital for Caribbean sun or to Stanley Johnson’s interests. A final checklist of themes or words best avoided by a G7 delegate hoping for a Mrs Johnson-forged entente: wallpaper, Macbeth, super-injunction, Cummings, peanuts, domestic, Allegra Stratton, expenses, inquiry, Petronella, takeaways, Charity Commission, Arcuri, child support, John Lewis, Marie Antoinette. The delegate who focuses on Mrs Johnson’s key field of expertise – the most loved yet most viciously slandered dog in recorded history – may find, however, that the bond thus initiated with the UK’s third female prime minister makes this a G7 like no other.