Sajid Javid claimed any criticisms of the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, meddling in government are founded in “sexism” and “misogyny”.
It follows the release of Tory peer Lord Ashcroft’s new biography about Johnson – serialised in the Daily Mail on Sunday – which claimed her “behaviour is preventing” the prime minister “from leading Britain as effectively as the voters deserve”.
However, the health secretary told Sky News: “First of all, the partners of politicians should be off limits.
“I do think there is sexism involved in this. I really do.
“I think going after Carrie Johnson is very unfair, it’s undignified and it’s just wrong.”
Johnson’s spokesperson released a rare statement to address these accusations on Sunday, which Javid said he supported.
It read: “Yet again Mrs Johnson has been targeted by a brutal briefing campaign against her by enemies of her husband.
“This is just the latest attempt by bitter ex-officials to discredit her.
“She is a private individual who plays no role in government.”
Javid also pointed out that the prime minister’s wife has no formal role in government – even though she was previously Javid’s special adviser and head of press within the Tory Party.
He repeatedly called for No.10′s critics to focus on the prime minister rather than his wife throughout his morning media round, telling BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “It’s legitimate [to talk about Mrs Johnson] in the same way it would be about any prime minister’s partner, in that sense it’s no different.
“I do think it’s right to say the focus on Carrie Johnson is very, very different to certainly my time in politics to any other partner of any other prime minister.”
Presenter Nick Robinson replied by pointing out her background is politics does actually set her apart from previous prime ministers’ spouses.
“To say she’s just someone’s spouse is completely misleading. She’s a critical player in politics, isn’t she?”
Javid replied: “No, I don’t agree with you and the key word was what you just said ‘was’.
“She was a special adviser, she was working in campaign headquarters but she is no longer.
“She is [now] the spouse to the prime minister, her residence is Downing Street she is the mother to two children, and I just think the kind of focus we are seeing on her now is undignified and unfair.”
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng also agreed that it was unfair to hit out at Carrie Johnson when speaking to broadcasters on Sunday.
He said: “The reports that somehow she’s got undue influence, I don’t think that’s true, the prime minister has been in politics for 25 years and has a pretty strong set of ideas.”
However, Kwarteng stopped short of confirming there was sexism in her treatment, and just acknowledged “her views are under scrutiny in a way that perhaps other prime ministers’ spouses weren’t” because her political positions are well known.
Labour MP Jess Phillips and the ex-wife of levelling up secretary Michael Gove, Sarah Vine, have also dubbed the interest in Carrie Johnson as sexism, as has the wife of former prime minister David Cameron, Samantha Cameron in the past.
She said: “In my view your husband or partner is the prime minister, they’re quite able to take decisions themselves, they have a huge team of advisers.
“And so the idea that it’s the wife, that you’re somehow influencing them over and above what they think or what advice they’re getting from their team, I think it’s kind of demeaning, really, for the prime minister.”