Sadiq Khan says a politician’s private life shouldn’t affect their career after Boris Johnson announces divorce from Marina Wheeler News of Johnson’s divorce came amid claims his wife chucked him out after he had an affair with another woman

Sadiq Khan has defended a politician’s right to a private life and said it should have no bearing on their career after it was reported Boris Johnson’s wife had split up with him over more cheating allegations.

The Mayor of London appeared on LBC Radio talk show just after news broke that the former foreign secretary and his barrister wife were seeking a divorce.

According to reports in The Sun the split is due to claims Johnson has been cheating on his wife of 25 years, Marina Wheeler, but this has not been confirmed by the couple.

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The newspaper splashed on the cheating allegations alongside a breakdown of three women Johnson is alleged to have had affairs with, one of whom had a child from the relationship.

The revelations raised eyebrows in Westminster among some Tory colleagues and ignited speculation as to whether it would impact Johnson’s expected party leadership bid.

But Khan said that private issues, including those surrounding relationships, should not tarnish a public career.

Presenter James O’Brien was speaking to the Mayor about Johnson’s Garden Bridge project and he said: “On the subject of Boris’ vanity projects…answer this as a person not a politician or a lawyer.

“Do you feel that a politician’s private life should have a bearing on his political life, upon how people judge him politically?”

Mayor of London @SadiqKhan is live on LBC to answer your questions. Watch live: https://t.co/tUVjeDCewY — LBC (@LBC) September 7, 2018

Khan replied: “No, I don’t. I mean, there are some exceptions we can think of when you do things in your private life that impact on your public life… exceptional reasons why I think it does. But I think that everyone is entitled to have a private life.”

Speaking of Johnson’s current situation, he said: “He is a husband, a father and I have seen the stuff in today’s media about his private life and I think he is entitled to his private life, as indeed is his wife and their children.

Pressing him, O’Brien said: “You don’t believe there is any mileage in the suggestion that if a man can lie to his wife then he can lie to his country?”

And Khan shot back: “No, I don’t want to go there James.”

“Look I think the way we conduct our private lives should be private,” he reiterated. “There are some exceptional circumstances where the way you conduct your private life does impact upon your public life and hypocrisy is a good one … if they have been hypocrites and stuff, but when it comes to a marriage breaking up, particularly when there are children involved, I think that should stay private.”

In a joint personal statement Johnson and Wheeler, both 54, said: “Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate.

“We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further.”

Johnson was a childhood friend of Wheeler – the daughter of BBC journalist Charles Wheeler – when they were both pupils at the European School in Brussels.

He met his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen while they were students at Oxford, and they wed in 1987, but the marriage was annulled in 1993 and he married Wheeler later that year. The couple have two sons and two daughters.

Johnson has repeatedly come under scrutiny over his personal life after several reports of affairs and the revelation that he fathered a daughter during an adulterous relationship while he was Mayor of London in 2009.

In 2004 he was sacked from the Tory frontbench over a reported affair with journalist Petronella Wyatt.

In Westminster, speculation was rife over whether Johnson may have made news of his impending divorce public in order to “clear the decks” ahead of a leadership bid.