EXCLUSIVE: Boris and Carrie Johnson to move out of Number 10 and back to Camberwell

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie just cannot rent out their £1.3million flat – so they have decided to move back in.

The premier has had issues paying off the full £200,000 debt for the refurbishment of 10 Downing Street – so Mr Johnson has found a way to ease it.

He will move back to Camberwell to save on the bills.

And he could insist money-bags Chancellor Rishi Sunak move to the Prime Minister’s official residence, from Number 11.

The billionaire financier has made clear moving there is his long-term aim anyway.

By moving out and making rival Sunak pay the rent, the spendthrift Mr Johnson has a better chance of matching his outgoings to his income. It is thought an alternative plan – insisting Sunak move to the Camberwell house – caused a split in Cabinet.

The Johnsons have been baffled as to why they could not rent out the £3,300-a-month Camberwell property – though residents suggest it may be because if any tenants have a row, it might be overheard by their neighbours.

Extra sound insulation may need to be installed in the house so state secrets cannot be audible amid the hubbub.

Officials are also optimistic a return to Camberwell to live among the electorate may give Johnson a closer connection to reality after Covid, Partygate and the Ukraine war.

One official said: “The PM may like to burnish his man-of-the-people image, but he’s never lived in a property worth less than a hospital wing, so this might take him down a peg or two.

“And it might stop Carrie interfering in government business, too.

“This is a total joke, by the way.”

Johnson may find a return to Camberwell is less welcome than he hopes, though.

One resident told the Guardian in July 2019: “He’s in enemy territory here and needs to move.” Another declared: “Everyone here thinks he’s a total w***er.”

One neighbour said this week: “I will be banging on the walls with a broom if he has any so-called work meetings into the small hours.”

Officials are now anxious about whether Carrie will demand the Camberwell flat is redecorated too – and who would pay for it, if she did. Lord Brownlow, who loaned the cost of the revamp of Number 10, is said to be on holiday in South America.

The couple bought their semi-detached Camberwell property, with four bedrooms and a garden, with a joint Santander mortgage in July 2019, days before he became prime minister – and soon after having a widely publicised argument overheard by neighbours at Symonds’ former flat, nearby in Brunswick Place, pictured above.

Johnson had moved into that flat a year before, after he separated from wife Marina Wheeler.

The PM also rents out a £1.2m four-bedroom property, with a pool and a tennis court, in his Thame constituency for £4,250 a month.

A source close to the government said: “We are hoping Boris will be able to house some Ukrainian refugees there. That really would create a hostile environment.”

Do you want Boris Johnson back in Camberwell? Send your views to news@slpmedia.co.uk by 11.59am today, April 1.