Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson
Official portrait of Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom
Official portrait, 2019
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
24 July 2019 – 6 September 2022
MonarchElizabeth II
DeputyDominic Raab[a]
Preceded byTheresa May
Succeeded byLiz Truss
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
23 July 2019 – 5 September 2022
Preceded byTheresa May
Succeeded byLiz Truss
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office
13 July 2016 – 9 July 2018
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Preceded byPhilip Hammond
Succeeded byJeremy Hunt
Mayor of London
In office
3 May 2008 – 9 May 2016
Deputy
Preceded byKen Livingstone
Succeeded bySadiq Khan
Shadow Minister
2005–2007Higher Education
2004Arts
Member of Parliament
for Uxbridge and South Ruislip
In office
7 May 2015 – 12 June 2023
Preceded byJohn Randall
Succeeded bySteve Tuckwell
Member of Parliament
for Henley
In office
7 June 2001 – 4 June 2008
Preceded byMichael Heseltine
Succeeded byJohn Howell
Personal details
Born
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

(1964-06-19) 19 June 1964 (age 59)
New York City, US
Citizenship
Political partyConservative
Spouses
(1987⁠–⁠1993)
(m. 1993; div. 2020)
(m. 2021)
Parents
Relatives
ResidenceBrightwell Manor
Education
Occupation
  • Politician
  • author
  • journalist
Signature
WebsiteUK Parliament profile

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023. He has played little role in active politics since he resigned from Parliament, subsequent to the finding of the Commons Privileges Committee that he had repeatedly misled the House. [2]

Johnson attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford in his youth; and he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1989, he began writing for The Daily Telegraph, and from 1999 to 2005 he was the editor of The Spectator. He became a member of the shadow cabinet of Michael Howard in 2001 before being sacked in 2004 for lying about his private life. After Howard resigned, he became a member of David Cameron's shadow cabinet. He was elected Mayor of London in 2008 and resigned from the House of Commons to focus his attention on the mayoralty. He was re-elected mayor in 2012, but did not run for re-election in 2016. At the 2015 general election he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson was a prominent figure in the Brexit campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. After the referendum, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him foreign secretary. He resigned from the position in 2018 in protest at both the Chequers Agreement and May's approach to Brexit.

Johnson succeeded May as prime minister. He re-opened Brexit negotiations with the European Union and in early September he prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court later ruled the action to have been unlawful. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement but failing to win parliamentary support, Johnson called a snap general election to be held in December 2019, which the Conservative Party won. During Johnson's premiership, the government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing various emergency powers to mitigate its impact and approved a nationwide vaccination programme. He also responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorising foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine.[3] In the Partygate scandal it was found that numerous parties had been held at 10 Downing Street during national COVID-19 lockdowns, and COVID-19 social distancing laws were breached by 83 individuals, including Johnson, who in April 2022 was issued with a fixed penalty notice. The publishing of the Sue Gray report in May 2022 and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction led in June 2022 to a vote of confidence in his leadership amongst Conservative MPs, which he won. In July 2022, revelations over his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party while knowing of allegations of sexual misconduct against him led to a mass resignation of members of his government and to Johnson announcing his resignation as prime minister. He was succeeded by Liz Truss but remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher until he resigned in June 2023, days before the Privileges Committee investigation on his conduct unanimously found that he had lied to the Commons on numerous occasions.

Johnson is seen by many as a controversial figure in British politics.[4][5] His supporters have praised him for being humorous, witty, and entertaining,[6] with an appeal reaching beyond traditional Conservative Party voters, making him, in their view, an electoral asset to the party.[7][8] Conversely, his critics have accused him of lying, elitism, cronyism and bigotry.[9][10][11] As prime minister, his supporters praised him for "getting Brexit done", overseeing the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme, which was amongst the fastest in the world, and being one of the first world leaders to offer humanitarian support to Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country.[12][13][14] His tenure also saw several controversies and scandals, and is viewed as the most scandalous premiership of modern times by historians and biographers alike.[15] Johnson has commonly been described as a one-nation conservative, and political commentators have characterised his political style as opportunistic, populist and pragmatic.[16][17][18]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Croucher, Shane (23 July 2019). "Britain's new prime minister was a U.S. citizen for decades—until the IRS caught up with him". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  2. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/15/partygate-report-key-findings-of-commons-privileges-committee-boris-johnson
  3. ^ "UK Gives £1 Billion to Ukraine to Help Fund Offensive Operations". Bloomberg.com. 29 June 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  4. ^ Davies, Guy (23 July 2019). "Meet Boris Johnson: The UK's controversial new prime minister". ABC News. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  5. ^ Blitz, James (23 July 2019). "Why is Boris Johnson such a divisive figure?". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  6. ^ Gimson 2012, p. 20.
  7. ^ Kirkup, James (7 January 2015). "Boris Johnson goes looking for Conservative friends in the north". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  8. ^ Purnell 2011, p. 327.
  9. ^ Edwards & Isaby 2008, p. 110.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference GuardChums was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Purnell 2011, p. 365.
  12. ^ "'Get Brexit Done.' The Slogan That Won Britain's Election". Time. 13 December 2019. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  13. ^ Editorial (1 February 2021). "The Guardian view on the vaccine rollout: the state we're in". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Boris Johnson's support for Ukraine was special, President Zelensky says". BBC News. 7 July 2022. Archived from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  15. ^ "The most controversial PM since Lloyd George: historians on Boris Johnson". The Observer. 4 September 2022. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  16. ^ Purnell 2011, p. 121.
  17. ^ Staunton, Denis (23 June 2019). "Boris Johnson: The UK's deeply polarising next prime minister". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  18. ^ Berend, T. Iván (2020). A century of populist demagogues: Eighteen European portraits, 1918–2018. Budapest: Central European University Press. p. 239. ISBN 978-963-386-334-3. JSTOR 10.7829/j.ctv16f6cn2.1.

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