Women With Balls: Cleo Watson

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The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cleo Watson is a former No.10 advisor to Boris Johnson and now author or the recently published book Whips, a novel set in SW1 filled with sex, politics and scandals. On the podcast, Cleo talks about her life growing up in a big family; her career into politics which began in America on Obama's campaign and led to her advising the likes of Theresa May and Boris Johnson; and her recent departure from politics which gave her the chance to finish the book.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority.
0:07.6	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription, in print and online, plus a £20 £20,000, Amazon gift voucher, absolutely free.
0:17.4	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:25.9	Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I Katie Balls speak to today's trailblazers.
0:31.2	My guest today started her career in politics by working in Barack Obama's 2012 for election campaign while studying abroad.
0:37.7	She then went to work for the Leave campaign for the Brexit referendum, followed by jobs
0:42.0	with Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
0:44.3	It was during her time with Johnson where she caught the media's attention, being described
0:48.4	as a gazelle to Dominic Cummings Pit Pony.
0:51.4	She has also said that she was something of a nanny to the Prime Minister.
0:55.1	However, she left her role at number 10 soon after the departure of Cummings.
0:58.6	She then went on to work on arrangements to the COP26 Summit and has now published her first
1:02.4	book, a satirical fiction about three young women trying to make their way in Westminster.
1:07.1	My guest today is Cleo Watson.
1:09.1	And so anyway, Cleo, thank you for joining me today on the podcast.
1:13.0	Now, to begin, we always ask everyone the same question, which was a happy childhood.
1:18.0	And you grew up in a Wales, am I correct?
1:19.8	That's right.
1:20.3	Yeah, it was a very happy childhood.
1:22.0	I'm one of six.
1:23.1	I'm the fifth girl.
1:24.1	And then there's one boy in the end.
	...

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