Denis Thatcher seemed happy to do nothing but booze and play golf. Jacinda Ardern’s fiance throws himself into fishing. How will Liz Truss’s spouse cope with being in the spotlight?
Hugh O’Leary recently joined a club – and I’m not sure many of us would envy him. No, it wasn’t the “husbands of Liz Truss” club, but the First Guys club or – the New Zealand variant, which I prefer – the First Blokes club: that select but growing band of male partners of heads of state. In many ways, it is less onerous than being a female consort, since certain ancient social prejudices remain: a male partner is not expected to go everywhere with his spouse, at least not until he retires. If O’Leary is still married to a prime minister when he reaches retirement age (he is currently 48), I will eat my hat, your hat and all the hats.
The pair are said to live fairly separate lives – few in the party would even recognise O’Leary, outside the “Greenwich mafia”, their local Conservative scene. An unnamed source from Truss’s office said they had to give him access to her work diary, otherwise he would never know where she is or when she’s coming back.
