Behind every successful man there is a woman – and behind every unsuccessful man, there are two,” Mark Twain once wrote. He may have been joking but it has never been truer that strong monogamous alliances breed stratospheric success, especially in Westminster. Upcoming contenders for high-flying careers in this world must note: the secret to a power coupling consists of selecting very carefully – and hanging on to for dear life – a power spouse. In moments of doubt, the young and ambitious should ask themselves: Who in all honesty would have heard of Hillary if her surname had not been Clinton?

“The Westminster bubble is small and quite hermetic,” explains Marie Le Conte, author of Haven’t You Heard: Gossip, Politics and Power. “Whether you’re a journalist, adviser or politician, you will be working very long hours in a space the size of a small village. The line between professional and personal becomes a blurry one after drinks in Strangers’.”

Or, as one of her Labour sources puts it: “Everyone was at it, because people in politics are mad, and they spend all their time in politics, and they socialise with people in politics. In political relationships, your networks become their networks.”

Double trouble

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds, Michael Gove and Sarah Vine, Dominic Cummings and Mary Wakefield – these are the couples of the moment. But the phenomenon doesn’t begin and end there. It also comprises those who’ve taken a topple from the top of the tree, such as Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, who had his and hers parliamentary seats before the right honourable member for Normanton was kicked out by the electorate and had to reinvent himself as a ballroom dancer.

Neil and Glenys Kinnock’s son Stephen was, at one point, first gentleman of Denmark thanks to Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And while the Brexit Party may frown on political unions, that’s not stopped Richard Tice and Isabel Oakeshott. Some prefer to operate as unobtrusively as possible. Munira Mirza, the PM’s director of policy, and her husband, Tory fixer Dougie Smith, are “a powerful and discreet axis of power”, in the words of Tim Shipman. “Dougie knows where most of the bodies are buried. He still owns the spade.”

Boris and Carrie are the exception that momentarily proves the rule. For they aren’t so much a power couple as a political threesome. Rumours swirl as to the true state of their relationship but its public image is carefully laundered through whichever newspaper is clever enough to employ Carrie’s ex-boyfriend, Harry Cole. While keeping her own ex-lover on speed dial is perfectly all right, a source tells me the PM’s baby mama has culled his old amores from WhatsApp. In terms of power partners, Symonds is certainly a downgrade from Marina Wheeler, the high-powered QC whose influence became evident when she attacked the European Court of Justice in the pages of The Spectator in 2016. Carrie may influence his thoughts on the oceans but the stress of dealing with Covid-19 and …