‘Why,” inquires Penelope Upton of Lighthorne, Warwick, “is The Times referring to the wife or girlfriend of the next prime minister as First Lady or First Girlfriend? There’s some irony in the latter case, as Ms Symonds is hardly Johnson’s first girlfriend and she probably won’t be the last.”
Oooh, ouch, nice one Penelope. Kathryn Dobson of Liverpool also has views about “first” females. “The ‘first lady’ of No 10 was Margaret Thatcher. The ‘first lady’ of the state is the Queen. Wives and partners of prime ministers are not ‘first ladies’ in this country, any more than husbands are ‘first gentlemen’. This is not the USA.”
Angela Patey of Bristol “was horrified, after living in a country where we have had two female prime