Boris Johnson

Early life and education

Childhood

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born on 19 June 1964 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Stanley Johnson, then studying economics at Columbia University, and Charlotte Fawcett, an artist, whose father Sir James Fawcett, was a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights from 1972 to 1981. Johnson was a US citizen by virtue of his birth in the US, though he would later renounce his American citizenship. Johnson's parents returned to the UK in September 1964 so Charlotte could study at the University of Oxford. She lived with her son in Summertown, Oxford, and in September 1965 she gave birth to a daughter, Rachel. In July 1965, the family moved to Crouch End in north London, and in February 1966 they relocated to Washington, DC, where Stanley worked with the World Bank. Stanley then took a job with a policy panel on population control, and moved the family to Norwalk, Connecticut, in June. A third child, Leo, was born in September 1967.

The family returned to the UK in 1969, and lived at West Nethercote Farm in Winsford, Somerset, Stanley's family home in Exmoor. His father was regularly absent, leaving Johnson to be raised largely by his mother, assisted by au pairs. As a child, Johnson was quiet, studious, and deaf, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears. He and his siblings were encouraged to engage in intellectual activities from a young age. Johnson's earliest recorded ambition was to be "world king". Having no other friends, the siblings became very close.

In late 1969, the family moved to Maida Vale in west London, while Stanley began post-graduate research at the London School of Economics. In 1970 Charlotte and the children briefly returned to Nethercote, where Johnson attended Winsford Village School, before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill, where they were educated at Primrose Hill Primary School. A fourth child, Joseph, was born in late 1971.

After Stanley secured employment at the European Commission in April 1973, he moved his family to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School, Brussels I, and learnt to speak French. Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with depression, after which Johnson and his siblings were sent back to the UK in 1975 to attend Ashdown House, a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex. There, he developed interests in rugby, Ancient Greek, and Latin. In December 1978 his parents' relationship broke down; they divorced in 1980, and Charlotte moved to Notting Hill, London, where her children joined her for much of their time.

Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987

Johnson gained a King's Scholarship to study at Eton College, a boarding school near Windsor, Berkshire. Arriving in the autumn term of 1977, he began going by his middle name Boris, and developed "the eccentric English persona" for which he became famous. He denounced Catholicism and joined the Church of England. School reports complained about his idleness, complacency, and lateness, but he was popular at Eton.

Johnson's friends were largely from the wealthy upper classes; his best friends were Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer. Both would go on to accompany him at the University of Oxford and remained his friends into adulthood. Johnson excelled in English and the Classics, winning prizes in both, and became secretary of the school debating society and editor of the school newspaper. In late 1981 he became a member of Pop, a small, self-selecting elite group of school prefects. After leaving Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an independent boarding school.

Johnson won a scholarship to read Literae humaniores at Balliol College, Oxford, a four-year course in Classics, ancient languages, literature, history, and philosophy. Matriculating in late 1983, he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who dominated British politics and media in the early 21st century, including Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles. While at Oxford, Johnson joined the college's rugby union team as a tighthead prop. To his later regret, he joined the Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for vandalism. Many years later, a group photograph including himself and Cameron in Bullingdon Club formal dress led to much negative press coverage. While at Oxford, he began a relationship with Allegra Mostyn-Owen, cover girl for Tatler magazine and daughter of Christie's Education chairman William Mostyn-Owen. They became engaged.

In the summer of 1984 Boris Johnson and his sister Rachel volunteered at Kibbutz Kfar HaNassi in northern Israel, where they stayed with an Israeli family originally from Leeds.

Johnson was popular and well known at Oxford. Alongside Guppy, he edited the university's satirical magazine Tributary. In 1984, Johnson was elected secretary of the Oxford Union, and campaigned unsuccessfully for the position of Union President. In 1986, Johnson ran successfully for president, but his term was not distinguished or memorable, and questions were raised regarding his competence and seriousness. At graduation, Johnson was awarded an upper second-class degree, and was deeply unhappy he did not receive a first.

Early career

The Times and The Daily Telegraph: 1987–1994

In September 1987, Johnson and Mostyn-Owen married. They settled in West Kensington, London. In late 1987, through family connections, he began work as a graduate trainee at The Times. Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article for the newspaper on the archaeological discovery of Edward II's palace, having invented a quote which he falsely attributed to the historian Colin Lucas, his godfather. After the paper's editor, Charles Wilson, learnt of the matter, he dismissed Johnson.

Johnson secured employment on the lead-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having met its editor, Max Hastings, while at university. His articles appealed to the newspaper's Conservative-voting "Middle England" readership, and he was known for his distinctive literary style, replete with old-fashioned phrasing and for regularly referring to the readership as "my friends". In early 1989, Johnson was appointed to the newspaper's Brussels bureau to report on the European Commission, remaining in the post until 1994. A strong critic of the integrationist Commission president Jacques Delors, he established himself as one of the city's few Eurosceptic journalists. He wrote articles about euromyths: that Brussels had recruited sniffer dogs to ensure that all manure smelt the same, they were about to dictate the acceptable curve of British bananas, limit the power of their vacuum cleaners and order women to return their old sex toys. He wrote that euro notes made people impotent and that a plan to blow up the Berlaymont building was in place because asbestos cladding made the building too dangerous to inhabit. Many of his fellow journalists were critical of his articles, saying they often contained lies designed to discredit the commission. The Europhile Conservative politician Chris Patten later said that Johnson was "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism". Johnson opposed banning handguns after the Dunblane school massacre, writing in his column "Nanny is confiscating their toys. It is like one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy."

According to Sonia Purnell, one of Johnson's biographers and his Brussels deputy, he helped make Euroscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas it had been associated previously with the Left. Johnson's articles exacerbated tensions between the Conservative Party's Eurosceptic and Europhile factions. As a result, he earned the mistrust of many party members. His writings were also a key influence on the emergence of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the early 1990s. Conrad Black, then proprietor of The Daily Telegraph, said Johnson "was such an effective correspondent for us in Brussels that he greatly influenced British opinion on this country's relations with Europe".

Political columnist: 1994–1999

Back in London, Hastings turned down Johnson's request to become a war reporter, instead promoting him to assistant editor and chief political columnist. Johnson's column received praise for being ideologically eclectic and distinctively written, and earned him Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards. Some critics condemned his writing style as bigotry; in columns he used the words "piccaninnies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, championed European colonialism in Uganda and referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys".

In 1993, Johnson outlined his desire to run as a Conservative in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Andrew Mitchell convinced Major not to veto Johnson's candidacy, but Johnson could not find a constituency. He turned his attention to obtaining a seat in the House of Commons instead. After being rejected as Conservative candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras, he was selected the Conservative candidate for Clwyd South in north Wales, then a Labour Party safe seat. Spending six weeks campaigning, he attained 9,091 votes (23 per cent) in the 1997 general election, losing to Labour candidate Martyn Jones.

Scandal erupted in June 1995 when a recording of a 1990 telephone conversation between Johnson and his friend Darius Guppy was made public. In it, Guppy said that his criminal activities involving insurance fraud were being investigated by News of the World journalist Stuart Collier, and he asked Johnson to provide him with Collier's private address, seeking to have the latter beaten. Johnson agreed, although he expressed concern that he would be associated with the attack. When the phone conversation was published, Johnson stated that ultimately he had not obliged Guppy's request. Hastings reprimanded Johnson but did not dismiss him.

Johnson was given a regular column in The Spectator, sister publication to The Daily Telegraph, which attracted mixed reviews and was often thought rushed. In 1999, he was also given a column reviewing new cars in the American men's monthly magazine GQ. The large number of parking fines that Johnson acquired while testing cars frustrated staff. At The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, he was consistently late delivering copy, forcing staff to stay late to accommodate him; some related that if they published without his work, he would shout at them with expletives.

The Spectator and MP for Henley: 1999–2008

In July 1999, Conrad Black offered Johnson the editorship of The Spectator on the condition he abandon his parliamentary aspirations; Johnson agreed. While retaining The Spectator's traditional right-wing bent, Johnson welcomed contributions from leftist writers and cartoonists. Under Johnson's editorship, the magazine's circulation grew by 10% to 62,000 and it became profitable. His editorship also drew criticism; some opined that under him The Spectator avoided serious issues, while colleagues became annoyed that he was regularly absent from the office, meetings, and events. He gained a reputation as a poor political pundit because of incorrect political predictions. His father-in-law Charles Wheeler and others strongly criticised him for allowing Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos to publish racist and antisemitic language. Journalist Charlotte Edwardes wrote in The Times in 2019 that Johnson had squeezed her thigh at a private lunch at the Spectator in 1999 and that another woman had told her he had done the same to her. A spokesman denied the allegation.

In 2003, Johnson alongside Nicholas Burgess Farrell had a three-hour interview with then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his private palace in Sardinia. When excerpts were published in The Spectator and Italian newspapers, they caused a controversy that almost led to an institutional crisis due to Berlusconi's controversial statements about among others Benito Mussolini and the Italian judiciary. In 2004, Johnson published an editorial in The Spectator after the murder of Ken Bigley suggesting that Liverpudlians were wallowing in their victim status and "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough disaster, which Johnson partly blamed on "drunken fans". In an appendix added to a later edition of his 2005 book The Dream of Rome, Tell MAMA and the Muslim Council of Britain criticised Johnson for arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the West.

Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand as Conservative candidate for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire. The local Conservative branch selected him although it was split over Johnson's candidacy. Some thought him amusing and charming while others disliked his flippant attitude and perceived lack of knowledge of the local area. Assisted by his television fame, Johnson won the seat in the 2001 general election. Alongside his Islington home, Johnson bought a farmhouse outside Thame in his new constituency. He regularly attended Henley social events and occasionally wrote for the Henley Standard. His constituency surgeries proved popular, and he joined local campaigns to stop the closure of Townlands Hospital and the local air ambulance.

Mayor of London (2008–2016)

Mayoral election: 2007–2008

In September, Johnson was selected as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London after a public London-wide primary. Johnson's campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the double-decker AEC Routemaster. Targeting the Conservative-leaning suburbs of outer London, it capitalised on perceptions that the Labour Mayoralty had neglected them in favour of inner London. His campaign emphasised his popularity, even among those who opposed his policies, with opponents complaining a common attitude among voters was: "I'm voting for Boris because he is a laugh." The campaign of Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone portrayed Johnson as an out-of-touch toff and bigot.

In the election, Johnson received 43% and Livingstone 37% of first-preference votes; when second-preference votes were added, Johnson was victorious with 53% to Livingstone's 47%. Johnson subsequently announced his intention to stand down as MP for Henley.

First term: 2008–2012

After Johnson became mayor, those in City Hall deemed too closely allied to Livingstone's administration had their employment terminated. Johnson appointed Tim Parker as his deputy mayor, but after Parker began taking increasing control at City Hall, Johnson dismissed him. Many in the Conservative Party initially distanced themselves from Johnson's administration, fearing it would be damaging for the 2010 general election.

During the campaign, Johnson had confided to Brian Paddick he was unsure how he would maintain his lifestyle on the mayoral salary of £140,000 a year. He agreed to continue his Daily Telegraph column, thus earning a further £250,000 a year. His team believed this would cause controversy and made him promise to donate 20% of his Daily Telegraph salary to a charitable cause. Johnson resented this, and ultimately did not pay the full 20%. Controversy erupted when on the BBC's HARDtalk he referred to the £250,000 salary as "chicken feed"; this was at the time approximately 10 times the average yearly wage for a British worker.

During his first administration, Johnson was embroiled in several personal scandals. After moving to a new house in Islington, he built a shed without obtaining planning permission; after neighbours complained, he dismantled it. The press also accused him of having an affair with Helen Macintyre and of fathering her child, allegations that he did not deny. Johnson was accused of warning Damian Green that police were planning to arrest him; Johnson denied the claims. He was accused of cronyism, in particular for appointing Veronica Wadley as the chair of London's Arts Council. In the parliamentary expenses scandal, he was accused of excessive expenses claims for taxis.

Johnson remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status in the city.

Johnson made no major changes to the mayoral system of the previous administration. However, he did reverse several other measures implemented by Livingstone: ending the city's oil deal with Venezuela, abolishing The Londoner newsletter, and scrapping the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, which was reinstated three years later. Abolishing the western wing of the congestion charging zone, he cancelled plans to increase the congestion charge for four-wheel-drive vehicles. He was subsequently accused of failing to publish an independent report on air pollution commissioned by the Greater London Authority, which revealed the city breached legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels.

Second term: 2012–2016

After a successful bid under Livingstone in 2005, London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Johnson as board co-chair. He improved transportation around London by making more tickets available and adding buses around the capital when thousands of spectators were temporary visitors. Johnson was accused of covering up pollution ahead of the games by deploying dust suppressants to remove air particulates near monitoring stations. In November 2013, Johnson announced major changes to the operation of the London Underground, including the extension of operating hours. All staffed ticket offices were replaced with automated ticketing systems.

Johnson was close friends with American entrepreneur and model Jennifer Arcuri, with The Sunday Times describing him as a regular visitor to her flat, and implying they were in a sexual relationship. Arcuri and her company, Innotech, were awarded substantial government grants, and Johnson intervened to allow her onto three trade mission trips. The Sunday Times said in September 2019 that Johnson failed to declare his personal relationship as a conflict of interest. The Greater London Authority referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) "so it can assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office", for the Mayor is also London's police and crime commissioner. On 9 November 2019 it was revealed that the IOPC had decided to publish its report after the general election on 12 December. The IOPC eventually issued its report in May 2020, concluding that, although there was no basis for any criminal charge, there was evidence that the close relationship between Johnson and Arcuri had influenced decisions, that Johnson should have declared an interest, and that his failure to do this could have breached the London Assembly's code of conduct.

In 2015, Johnson criticised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's false comments that there were no-go zones in London inaccessible for non-Muslims. Johnson said Trump was "betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of President of the United States", becoming the first senior politician in the UK to declare Trump unfit for office, but rejecting calls for him to be banned from the country. In 2016, he said he was "genuinely worried that [Trump] could become president", telling ITV's Tom Bradby that being mistaken for Trump in New York was "one of the worst moments" of his life.

Johnson did not run for a third term and stepped down on 5 May 2016 following the election. A YouGov poll commissioned at the end of Johnson's tenure revealed that 52% of Londoners believed he did a "good job" while 29% believed he did a "bad job".

Return to Parliament

Johnson initially said that he would not return to the House of Commons while mayor. After much media speculation, in August 2014 he sought selection as the Conservative candidate for the safe seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2015 general election. In the 2015 general election, Johnson was elected. There was speculation that he had returned to Parliament because he wanted to replace Cameron as Conservative leader and prime minister.

Brexit campaign: 2015–2016

In February 2016, Johnson endorsed Vote Leave in the "Out" campaign for the 2016 European Union membership referendum. Following this announcement, which was interpreted by financial markets as making Brexit more probable, the pound sterling slumped by nearly 2% against the US dollar, reaching its lowest level since March 2009.

In April 2016, in response to a comment by President Barack Obama that Britain should remain in the European Union, Johnson wrote an "ancestral dislike" of Britain owing to his "part-Kenyan" background may have shaped Obama's views. Several politicians condemned his comments as racist and unacceptable. Conversely, former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage defended them.

Johnson supported Vote Leave's statement that the government was committed to Turkish accession to the EU. Vote Leave was accused of implying that 80 million Turks would come to the UK if it stayed in the EU. When interviewed in January 2019, he said he had not mentioned Turkey during the campaign. In a televised debate on 22 June 2016, Johnson declared 23 June could be "Britain's independence day". According to James Murdoch, Johnson did not believe the Brexit referendum would pass and when, during a meeting between him and other executives of Fox News, he was asked its potential result he replied "We'll see".

Following the victory of the "Leave" campaign, Cameron resigned. Johnson was widely regarded as the front-runner to succeed him in the consequent Conservative leadership election but announced he would not stand. Shortly before this, Michael Gove, hitherto a Johnson ally, concluded that Johnson "cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead". The Daily Telegraph called Gove's comments "the most spectacular political assassination in a generation". Johnson endorsed Andrea Leadsom's candidature, but she dropped out, leaving Theresa May to be elected uncontested.

Foreign Secretary: 2016–2018

May appointed Johnson foreign secretary in July 2016. Analysts saw it as a tactic to weaken Johnson politically: the new positions of "Brexit secretary" and international trade secretary left the foreign secretary as a figurehead. Johnson's appointment ensured he would often be out of the country and unable to mobilise backbenchers against her, while forcing him to take responsibility for problems caused by withdrawing from the EU.

Some journalists and foreign politicians criticised Johnson's appointment because of his controversial statements about other countries. His tenure attracted criticism from diplomats and foreign policy experts. Several diplomats, FCO staff and foreign ministers who worked with Johnson compared his leadership unfavourably to previous foreign secretaries for his perceived lack of conviction or substantive positions. A senior official in Obama's government suggested Johnson's appointment would push the US further towards Germany at the expense of the Special Relationship with the UK. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi walked out of a meeting with Johnson after it did not "get beyond the pleasantries".

Johnson's visit to Turkey in September 2016 was tense because he had won Douglas Murray's offensive poetry competition about the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four months earlier. When questioned by a journalist whether he would apologise, Johnson dismissed the matter as "trivia". Johnson pledged to help Turkey join the EU and expressed support for Erdogan's government. Johnson described the Gülen movement as a "cult" and supported Turkey's post-coup purges.

Johnson supported the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen and refused to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In September 2016, human rights groups accused him of blocking the UN inquiry into Saudi war crimes in Yemen. Given the UK-Saudi alliance, in December 2016, he attracted attention for commenting the Saudis were akin to the Iranians in "puppeteering and playing proxy wars". In 2017, Johnson told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – a British-Iranian citizen imprisoned in Iran after being arrested for training journalists in a BBC World Service Trust project – had been "simply teaching people journalism". Facing criticism, Johnson stated he had been misquoted and nothing he said had justified Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sentence. In 2018, Johnson backed the Iran nuclear deal framework, despite Trump's withdrawal.

Return to the backbenches: 2018–2019

Johnson returned to the role of a backbench MP. In July, he delivered a resignation speech, stating "it is not too late to save Brexit". In January 2019, Johnson came under criticism for remarks he had made during the 2016 Leave campaign regarding the prospect of Turkish accession to the European Union; he denied making such remarks. In March 2019, he was criticised for saying that expenditure on investigating historic allegations of child abuse was money "spaffed up the wall".

In July 2018, Johnson signed a 12‑month contract to write articles for the Telegraph Media Group. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) reported that this was a breach of the Ministerial Code. Johnson was ordered to apologise for failing to declare £50,000 of earnings. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found the errors were not inadvertent, and that Johnson had failed on nine occasions to make declarations within the rules.

In September 2018, Johnson wrote: "We have opened ourselves to perpetual political blackmail. We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution – and handed the detonator to Michel Barnier." Senior Tories heavily criticised him, with Alan Duncan of the Foreign Office vowing to ensure the comments marked "the political end of Boris Johnson". In April 2019, the Independent Press Standards Organisation ruled that a claim in a 6 January 2019 article in The Daily Telegraph, "The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for", authored by Johnson, that a no-deal Brexit was "by some margin preferred by the British public" was false, and "represented a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article in breach of Clause 1 (i)" of its guidelines, and required that a correction be published.

On 12 June 2019, Johnson launched his campaign for the Conservative Party leadership election, saying, "we must leave the EU on 31 October." On the campaign trail, Johnson warned of "catastrophic consequences for voter trust in politics" if the government pushed the EU for further delays. He advocated removing the backstop from any Brexit deal. On 25 and 26 August, he announced plans to retain £7 or £9 billion of the £39 billion divorce payment the UK was due to transfer to the EU upon withdrawal. Johnson initially pledged to cut income tax for earners of more than £50,000 but backed away from this plan in June 2019 after coming under criticism in a televised BBC debate.

Premiership (2019–2022)

First term (July–December 2019)

On 24 July 2019, the day following Johnson's election as Conservative Party leader, Queen Elizabeth II accepted Theresa May's resignation and appointed Johnson as prime minister. This made Johnson the first prime minister to be born outside British territories. Johnson appointed Dominic Cummings as his senior advisor.

In his first speech as PM, Johnson said that the United Kingdom would leave the European Union on 31 October 2019 with or without a deal, and promised to remove the Irish backstop from the withdrawal agreement. Johnson declared his intention to re-open negotiations, but talks did not immediately resume as the EU refused to accept Johnson's condition that the backstop be removed. On 28 August 2019, UK and EU negotiators agreed to resume regular meetings.

Also on 28 August 2019, Johnson declared he had asked the Queen to prorogue Parliament from 10 September, reducing the time in which Parliament could block a no-deal Brexit and causing a political controversy. The Queen at Privy Council approved prorogation later the same day, and it began on 10 September, scheduled to last until 14 October. Some suggested that this prorogation amounted to a self-coup, and on 31 August 2019, protests occurred throughout the United Kingdom. By 2 September 2019, three separate court cases challenging Johnson's action were in progress or scheduled to take place, and on 11 September, three Scottish judges ruled the prorogation of the UK Parliament to be unlawful. On 12 September, Johnson denied lying to the Queen over suspension of the Parliament, while a Belfast Court rejected claims that his Brexit plans would have a negative impact on Northern Ireland's peace policy. On 24 September, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Johnson's advice to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, and therefore the prorogation was rendered null.

When Parliament resumed on 3 September 2019, Johnson indicated he would call a general election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act after opposition and rebel Conservative MPs successfully voted against the government to take control of the order of business to prevent a no-deal exit. Despite government opposition, the Benn Act, a bill to block a no-deal exit, passed the Commons on 4 September 2019, causing Johnson to propose a general election on 15 October. His motion was unsuccessful as it failed to command the support of two-thirds of the House.

Second term (December 2019 – September 2022)

Johnson reshuffled his cabinet in February 2020. Five Cabinet ministers were sacked, including the Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith, a decision that was criticised by several politicians and commentators following his success in restoring the Northern Ireland Executive devolved government. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid resigned from the Cabinet and was replaced by Rishi Sunak; Javid later returned to Johnson's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in June 2021 following the resignation of Matt Hancock.

Johnson reshuffled his cabinet again in September 2021. Changes included the dismissal of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who had received significant criticism for his handling of disruption to education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dominic Raab was moved from foreign secretary to deputy prime minister and justice secretary. Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss.

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a serious crisis within the first few months of Johnson's second term. Johnson's non-attendance of five COBR briefings during the early months and the failure of the UK government to prepare for and control the outbreak has been criticised. The UK was among the last major European states to close schools, ban public events and order a lockdown. This response is thought by some scientists to have contributed to the UK's high death toll from COVID-19, which was the highest in Europe and among the highest in the world.

Reuters reported that scientists were critical of Johnson both for acting too slowly to stop the spread of COVID-19 and for mishandling the government's response; Politico quoted Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty as saying that an earlier initial lockdown would have significantly lowered the death toll. The BMJ published several editorials critical of the policies adopted during the country's public health response. Johnson's public communication over the virus and the UK's test and trace system were also criticised.

On 3 March 2020 Johnson claimed to have shaken hands with COVID-19 patients in hospital on the same day that SAGE had advised the government to warn the public not to shake hands and minimise physical contact, though it was unclear whether the hospital he visited actually contained any coronavirus patients. He continued to shake hands publicly in the following days. On 23 March, a COVID-19 lockdown was imposed throughout the UK, except for a few limited purposes, backed up by new legal powers.

Environmental policies

In November 2020 Johnson announced a 10-point plan for a "green industrial revolution", to include ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, quadrupling the amount of offshore wind power capacity within a decade, funding emissions-cutting proposals, and spurning a proposed green post-COVID-19 recovery. In 2021 the Johnson government announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035.

Johnson announced that the UK would join the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 at the COP26 summit, which the UK hosted. Before the summit, representatives of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth criticised Johnson's comments on plans to introduce "enforceable limits" on carbon emissions for other countries, which they accused of being unsubstantive, and his government faced criticism from environmental groups for cutting taxes on domestic air travel, given the environmental impact of aviation.

In April 2022, Johnson announced that eight more nuclear reactors would be built on existing nuclear power plant sites and called for an expansion in wind energy. Under these plans, up to 95% of the UK's electricity could come from low-carbon power sources by 2030.

Foreign policy

Johnson supported the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas. Johnson's government placed importance on the "Special Relationship" with the United States. In 2022, his government introduced an asylum deal whereby people entering the UK illegally would be sent to Rwanda.

Johnson said in July 2019 that his government would be very "pro-China" in an interview with the Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV. He voiced support for Chinese president Xi Jinping's infrastructure investment effort, the Belt and Road Initiative, and promised to keep the United Kingdom "the most open economy in Europe" for Chinese investment.

In June 2020 Johnson announced that if China were to continue pursuing the Hong Kong national security law, the UK would offer 350,000 Hong Kong residents who are British National (Overseas) passport holders, and 2.6 million other eligible individuals, the chance to move to the UK. China accused the UK of interfering in its internal affairs.

Johnson declined to describe the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide", despite use of the term by the United States. Johnson's government argued that genocide should be decided by the International Criminal Court. Nevertheless, he called what is happening to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as "utterly abhorrent".

The UK joined the AUKUS defence pact with the United States and Australia in September 2021. The pact was denounced by China and caused a French backlash, as it usurped existing plans for Australia to procure French submarines.

On 29 October 2025, The Guardian newspaper revealed that Boris Johnson approved the controversial China's London super-embassy proposal in 2018, a project that remains in limbo seven years later.

On 8 July 2021 the day after saying he was "apprehensive" about the future of Afghanistan following what was then the impending withdrawal of US troops, while announcing the near completion of British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Johnson expressed the view that there was "no military path to victory for the Taliban". Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, he blamed the United States for the crisis, saying that NATO alliance members "could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might".

Post-premiership (2022–present)

After stepping down as party leader and prime minister, Johnson reverted to being an ordinary backbench MP. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Johnson took part in Charles III's Accession Council, and many other funeral-related events. Johnson has given several speeches since the end of his premiership. In December 2022, it was reported that Johnson had made £1m from speeches since his resignation.

After Liz Truss announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 20 October 2022, Johnson sought support from MPs to run in the subsequent leadership election, and received support from several cabinet members. Three days later, he announced that he would not stand, stating that he would not have enough support from MPs to govern effectively.

After his former chancellor Rishi Sunak was elected unopposed as party leader and prime minister, Johnson congratulated him and urged Conservatives to give Sunak "their full and wholehearted support.

In May 2023, Johnson was referred to the police by the Cabinet Office regarding previously unknown potential breaches of COVID regulations between June 2020 and May 2021, to which Johnson's office issued a statement criticising the "unfounded suggestions" which "has all the hallmarks of yet another politically motivated stitch-up".

Johnson still faced a Privileges Committee investigation as to whether he deliberately misled Parliament over gatherings during Covid lockdowns. After receiving a draft of the investigation's report, he resigned from Parliament. The committee found that Johnson had deliberately misled MPs and therefore concluded that he had committed contempt of Parliament. The recommendation from the committee was to suspend the former Prime Minister for more than ten days. Johnson subsequently accused the committee of a witch hunt against him. Following Johnson's reaction to the report, including "impugning the committee", they added that they would have recommended a suspension of 90 days instead. His resignation triggered a by-election in his seat.

On 9 June 2023, the publication of his 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours led to a public feud with Sunak. Johnson supporter Nadine Dorries announced that she was resigning as an MP due to not being included as a peer on the honours list. The same day, after receiving a confidential report from a committee of the House of Commons that was looking into whether he had lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking gatherings, Johnson announced his resignation as MP. His resignation statement said he is "not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result".

Political positions and ideology

Ideologically, Johnson has been described as a "One-Nation Tory". Political scientists have described Johnson's political positions as ambiguous and contradictory, encompassing nativist, authoritarian and free market tendencies on the one hand, and one-nation liberal conservatism on the other. Some scholars have questioned Johnson's commitment to one-nation conservativism, instead characterising his ideology as flexible and populist. Purnell stated that Johnson regularly changed his opinion on political issues, commenting on what she perceived to be "an ideological emptiness beneath the staunch Tory exterior".

During his tenure as mayor, Johnson gained a reputation as "a liberal, centre-ground politician", according to Business Insider. In 2012, the political scientist Tony Travers described Johnson as "a fairly classic—that is, small-state—mildly eurosceptic Conservative" who also embraced "modern social liberalism". The Guardian stated that while mayor, Johnson blended economic and social liberalism, with The Economist saying that in doing so Johnson "transcends his Tory identity" and adopts a more libertarian perspective. According to political scientist Richard Hayton, Johnson's premiership was about Brexit, which served as a "national cause". Johnson evoked the discourse of popular sovereignty and anti-establishment populism to portray Parliament as seeking to "sabotage" Brexit, and in doing so, presented himself "as the true representative of 'the people'".

Scholars of comparative politics have drawn comparisons between Johnson and other populist leaders such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orban. Some commentators have likened Johnson's political style to Trumpism, although others have argued that Johnson's stance on matters such as social policy, immigration and free trade is liberal. Johnson biographer Gimson wrote that Johnson is economically and socially "a genuine liberal", although he retains a "Tory element" through his "love of existing institutions, and a recognition of the inevitability of hierarchy". In 2019, reacting to reports in The Sun, that Johnson had told cabinet colleagues he was "basically a Brexity Hezza", former deputy leader of the Conservative Party Michael Heseltine wrote: "I fear that any traces of liberal conservatism that still exist within the prime minister have long since been captured by the rightwing, foreigner-bashing, inward-looking view of the world that has come to characterise his fellow Brexiters."

Environment

Johnson initially expressed climate sceptical views in several newspaper columns. As Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, Boris Johnson initiated several tree-planting programs to enhance the city's green spaces. His flagship pledge was to plant 10,000 street trees by 2012.

In 2019 and 2020 Johnson expressed support for the UK to have "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and spoke about increasing ambition for mitigating climate change through carbon capture and storage and a renewable energy transition. During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Johnson called for greater efforts towards climate change mitigation, and welcomed the prospect of coal phase-out.

Immigration and the European Union

Purnell believed it was the influence of Johnson's maternal family that led to him developing "a genuine abhorrence of racial discrimination". In 2003, Johnson said, "I am not by any means an ultra-Eurosceptic. In some ways, I am a bit of a fan of the European Union. If we did not have one, we would invent something like it." As mayor, Johnson was known as a supporter of immigration. From 2009, he advocated a referendum on Britain's EU membership.

In 2018, during Brexit negotiations, Johnson called for Britain to leave the Single Market and advocated a more liberal approach to immigration than that of Prime Minister May. He stated many people believed that Britain's EU membership had led to the suppression of British wages and said the EU was intent on creating a "superstate" that would seek to rob Britain of its sovereignty. In 2019, Johnson said he would take Britain out of the EU on 31 October whether there was a trade deal in place or not. Johnson also stated his opposition to a referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

On 19 August 2019, Johnson wrote a letter to the EU asking for the removal of the "backstop" accord. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, rejected the proposal. On 26 August 2019, Johnson said that Britain would not pay £39 billion for the withdrawal agreement were the UK to leave without a deal. The European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said there would be no further negotiation unless the UK agreed to pay the entire sum.

Unionism and devolution

Johnson described himself as a "fervent and passionate unionist". He proposed building an Irish Sea Bridge, but he later scrapped this initiative. The devolved administrations have criticised the Internal Market Bill for its re-centralisation of control over commerce.

Public image

Johnson has said that "humour is a utensil that you can use to sugar the pill and to get important points across". He is said to have a genuine desire to be liked. Johnson has been described as having a light-hearted and charming persona; many biographers and commentators suggest he has put significant effort into developing this version of himself. He has also been described as heavily focused on his own interests, with an often vitriolic or irresponsible way of conducting himself in private.

Johnson has been described as a divisive, controversial figure in British politics. Supporters have praised him as witty and entertaining. Johnson has been accused of lying or making misleading statements throughout his career, and has been compared to US president Donald Trump. He has been considered a figure with broad appeal outside of the usual Conservative support base. Johnson's premiership has been described by historians as the most controversial and scandal-affected since that of David Lloyd George about a century earlier.

Personal life

Since Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, he held British-American dual citizenship. In 2015, he agreed to pay capital gains tax to the US tax authorities on a property that he inherited in the UK. He renounced his US citizenship the following year. Johnson has knowledge of French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek, frequently making classical allusions in his newspaper columns and his speeches.

Sonia Purnell wrote in 2011 that Johnson was a "highly evasive figure" when it came to his personal life, who remained detached from others and who had few intimate friends. Among friends and family, Johnson is more commonly known as Al (short for his forename Alexander), rather than Boris.

In 2007, Johnson said he had smoked cannabis before he went to university. He has also said he had used cocaine. Johnson partakes in cycling, tennis and pilates, and returned to road running in 2023. He was considered obese in 2018 and overweight in 2020, and has spoken of making efforts to lose weight.

Johnson previously owned a £1.3 million buy-to-let townhouse in Camberwell, south London. According to HM Land Registry documents, he bought the four-bedroom property with his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds in July 2019. The register of MPs' interests states that Johnson had a rental income of at least £10,000 a year. In 2023, Johnson and Symonds bought Brightwell Manor in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire.

Religion

Johnson was baptised Catholic and later confirmed in the Church of England, but has said that his faith "comes and goes" and that he is not a serious practising Christian. In 2020 his son Wilfred was baptised Catholic. Johnson and Symonds married in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on 29 May 2021. Since he was baptised Catholic, but his previous weddings were not conferred by the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church considered them putatively invalid.

Johnson holds ancient Greek statesman Pericles as a personal hero. According to Johnson's biographer, Andrew Gimson, regarding ancient Greek and Roman polytheism: "it is clear that [Johnson] is inspired by the Romans, and even more by the Greeks, and repelled by the early Christians". Johnson views secular humanism positively and sees it as owing more to the classical world than to Christian thinking. In 2021 Johnson was asked if he held pre-Christian beliefs, which he denied, saying, "Christianity is a superb ethical system and I would count myself as a kind of very, very bad Christian... Christianity makes a lot of sense to me."

Relationships and children

Johnson and Allegra Mostyn-Owen married on 5 September 1987; they had no children together. On 26 April 1993, the couple were granted a divorce or annulment, which Mostyn-Owen sought due to Johnson's affair with barrister Marina Wheeler, daughter of journalist Charles Wheeler. On 8 May 1993, twelve days after the end of his marriage to Mostyn-Owen, he married Wheeler, who gave birth to their first child five weeks later. They have four children together: Lara (born 1993), Milo (born 1995), Cassia (born 1997) and Theodore (born 1999).

Between 2000 and 2004, Johnson had an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in a terminated pregnancy and a miscarriage. In April 2006, the News of the World alleged that he was having an affair with Times Higher Education journalist Anna Fazackerley. The pair did not comment; Fazackerley resigned after her editor questioned her about the allegations, and Johnson secured her a job as director of a higher education think tank. In 2009, he fathered a daughter, Stephanie, with arts consultant Helen Macintyre, who subsequently lost a legal action to prevent publication of her daughter's paternity. Johnson has declined to discuss his children when asked how many he had in subsequent interviews. American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri said that she had an affair with him from 2012 to 2016. In early 2018, he began an affair with Carrie Symonds, then the Conservative Party's director of communications. In September 2018, following media reports about the affair, Johnson and Wheeler confirmed that they had separated and were divorcing. Johnson was subsequently reported to be sharing a flat with Symonds.

After Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, he and Symonds moved into a flat above 11 Downing Street, the first time a prime minister had lived in Downing Street with an unmarried partner. In February 2020, his divorce from Wheeler was finalised, making him the first prime minister to get divorced while in office since 1769. Later that month, Symonds announced that she and Johnson had become engaged in late 2019 and were expecting their first child. She gave birth to their son Wilfred in April 2020. She suffered a miscarriage in early 2021. On 29 May 2021, Johnson and Symonds married at Westminster Cathedral. In September 2021, Johnson claimed in a US television interview that he then had six children, the first time he had stated the number, although this has not been officially confirmed. He and Symonds subsequently had three more children, a daughter Romy (born December 2021), a son Frank (born July 2023), and a daughter Poppy (born May 2025). The couple purchased Brightwell Manor, a 400 year-old Grade II-listed country house, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire in 2023, for around £3.8 million.

Family and ancestors

Johnson is the eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative member of the European Parliament, and the painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, president of the European Commission of Human Rights. His younger siblings are Rachel Johnson, a writer and journalist, Leo Johnson, a broadcaster, and Jo Johnson, ex-minister of state and former Conservative MP for Orpington, who resigned from his brother's government in September 2019 and is now a member of the House of Lords. Johnson's stepmother, Jenny, the second wife of his father Stanley, is the stepdaughter of Teddy Sieff, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer. Having been a member of the Conservatives between 2008 and 2011, Rachel Johnson joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017. She stood as a candidate for Change UK in the 2019 European Elections. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Julia and Maximilian, through his father's later marriage to Jennifer Kidd.

Johnson's paternal grandfather, Wilfred Johnson, was an RAF pilot in Coastal Command during the Second World War. Wilfred Johnson's father was the Ottoman Interior Minister and journalist Ali Kemal. Ali Kemal's father was a Turk while his mother was a Circassian reputedly of slave origin. His other paternal ancestry includes English, German and French; one of his German ancestors was said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and thus a descendant of George II of Great Britain, which was later confirmed on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

Johnson's mother is the granddaughter of Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer and a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US, and Pennsylvania-born Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a translator of Thomas Mann. Referring to his varied ancestry, Johnson has described himself as a "one-man melting pot". Johnson was given the middle name "Boris" after a White Russian émigré named Boris Litwin, who was a friend of his parents. Johnson's third given name, de Pfeffel, refers to the name of his great-grandmother Marie-Louise de Pfeffel's family.

Honours

Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Brunel University London, 2007

Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon FRIBA), 2011

Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK, 26 January 2014

Sworn in as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 15 July 2016, upon his appointment as foreign secretary. This gave him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life.

Medical Education Ig Nobel Prize, 2020 (shared with Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Alexander Lukashenko, Donald Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow).

Honorary Citizen of Odesa, 2 July 2022

Member of the Order of Liberty (Ukraine), 24 August 2022

Honorary Citizen of Kyiv, 19 January 2023

Honorary Doctorate from Ivan Franko National University, Lviv

Foot in Mouth Award winner (2004, 2016, 2019)