what is boris johnson biography

Boris Johnson

Who Is Boris Johnson?

After beginning his career as a journalist, Boris Johnson became a prominent editor while simultaneously building his political base as a Conservative MP. A surprise winner of London's mayoral race in 2008, the famously disheveled politician championed the "Leave" movement of the Brexit referendum in 2016 before spending two years as foreign secretary. Elevated to prime minister in 2019, Johnson engineered the U.K.'s break from the European Union but was criticized for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules and resigned his premiership in July 2022.

How Old Is Boris Johnson?

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York City on June 19, 1964.

Parents and Siblings

Johnson is the oldest of four children born to dad Stanley , a politician, environmentalist and author, and mom Charlotte , a painter.

His sister, Rachel , went on to earn acclaim as a journalist; his middle brother, Jo, became a member of Parliament and government minister; and his youngest brother, Leo, embarked on a career in finance. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Maximilian and Julia, from Stanley's second marriage.

Early Years and Education

Thanks to his father's varied professional pursuits, Johnson moved 32 times by age 14. The family's travels included stops in London, where Johnson attended Primrose Hill Primary School, and Brussels, where he was enrolled at the European School.

Affected by a medical condition known as "glue ear," which left him partially deaf until around age eight, Johnson was said to be a quiet, studious boy. He began emerging from his shell after being sent away to Ashdown House , a boarding school in East Sussex, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin and developed a love for rugby.

At Eton College, Johnson dropped his first name and honed a more extroverted personality. He headed the debate society, was named captain of school and joined the exclusive "Pop" club, though he also rankled faculty to the point where one housemaster criticized his "disgracefully cavalier attitude."

After a gap year spent teaching in Australia, Johnson returned to England to study classics at the University of Oxford's Balliol College. A standout among fellow future stars, he became president of the Oxford Union, co-edited the satirical publication Tributary and joined the Bullingdon Club before earning an upper second-class degree in 1987.

Journalist and Politician

Johnson began his journalism career as a graduate trainee for The Times but was fired the following year after attributing a fabricated quote to his godfather, renowned academic Colin Lucas.

Landing on his feet as the Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph , Johnson carved out a reputation for his exaggerated but entertaining critiques of the European Commission. He later likened the experience to "chucking these rocks over the garden wall and [listening] to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England."

Johnson served as the Telegraph 's chief political columnist and an assistant editor from 1994-99 and then as editor of The Spectator , a right-wing magazine, until 2005. During this time, he also began writing a regular automotive column for GQ and saw his celebrity grow via well-received appearances on the popular quiz show "Have I Got News for You."

Johnson also launched his political career as a Conservative MP from Henley, Oxfordshire, in 2001. Forced from his position as party vice-chair and shadow arts minister after lying about an affair in 2004, he rebounded to win reelection the following year and became shadow higher education minister under Conservative leader David Cameron.

Mayor of London

Named the Tory candidate for London mayor in 2007, Johnson earned his first taste of international attention for his disheveled appearance and energetic but bumbling ways. He ultimately defeated the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone, to become the city's second elected mayor in 2008.

Recovering from a chaotic start in which several top aides resigned, Johnson introduced the "Boris bikes" cycle-sharing program in 2010 and the new-and-improved "Boris bus" fleet in early 2012.

Although he was criticized for his response to the 2011 London riots, he held on to defeat Livingstone and earn a second term in office in 2012.

Johnson subsequently saw the completion of the ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower and Emirates Air Line cable cars in time for the 2012 London Olympics, which provided the lasting image of the mayor stuck on a zip line above Victoria Park. Other ambitious projects, such as the "Boris island" airport and garden bridge over the River Thames, never came to fruition despite his efforts.

Brexit Campaign

Along with taking on another elected post as MP of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in 2015, Johnson spent his final weeks as mayor engaged in the contentious issue of Brexit, a referendum on whether to continue the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union.

Initially unsure which side to take, Johnson eventually emerged as the face of the "Leave" campaign, in direct opposition to Prime Minister Cameron. His populist message for an independent U.K. resonated with the public, resulting in the electorate's historic vote to leave the E.U. on June 23, 2016.

Johnson subsequently launched a bid to replace Cameron as the Conservative leader but bowed out by the end of June, paving the way for Theresa May to take over as prime minister.

Foreign Secretary

Named May's secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs in July 2016, Johnson soon ran into trouble with his off-the-cuff commentary. After initially defending the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, he accused the Middle Eastern country of "puppeteering and playing proxy wars." Later, his incorrect assessment that a British-Iranian national was "teaching" when arrested for spying in Iran reportedly bolstered the accusations that she was spreading propaganda.

Johnson dutifully represented the country's interests in rebuking the alleged Russian use of a deadly nerve agent and supporting the Iran nuclear deal. But he also feuded with his boss over her attempts to negotiate the U.K.'s break from the E.U. Dismayed by the proposed compromises, Johnson stepped down as foreign secretary in July 2018.

U.K. Prime Minister

After May resigned in May 2019 over an inability to forge a Brexit agreement, Johnson again sought control of the party leadership. This time, he emerged victorious after promising to pull out of the E.U. by October 31, regardless of whether or not a deal was in place, and took over as prime minister on July 24, 2019.

Johnson quickly found himself at odds with lawmakers after asking Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament until mid-October, with critics charging that he was narrowing the opportunity for opposition to his Brexit plans. Parliament subsequently passed a bill that required the PM to request an extension for the U.K.'s departure by October 19 if he was unable to broker an agreement with the E.U. or earn the necessary consent for a no-deal Brexit.

While Johnson was forced to seek the extension, he was successful in bringing his case to the people with a snap election. Riding the slogan "get Brexit done," the Conservative Party proved the decisive winner in the December 2019 general election, giving Johnson time to fine-tune the minutiae of a final deal after the country's formal exit from the E.U. on January 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, a new crisis emerged that year with the rapid onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially reluctant to curb the flow of business and public interaction, Johnson finally announced the closure of stores and restaurants on March 20 before imposing strict lockdown measures a few days later. He then landed in intensive care after contracting the virus at the end of the month.

Although the U.K. became the first Western nation to greenlight a vaccine in December 2020, it also became the first European nation to surpass 100,000 casualties from the illness in January 2021. Later that year, a report slammed the " public health failures " in the country brought about by governmental delays in enacting social distancing guidelines.

Johnson’s problems compounded by April 2022 when he was fined for breaking lockdown rules. The following month, he was named a primary culprit in a series of lockdown-defying social gatherings among government employees, a scandal dubbed " Partygate ."

After he survived a no-confidence vote from party members in June, the revelation that Johnson was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against deputy chief whip Chris Pincher triggered a wave of government resignations headlined by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid. On July 7, 2022, Johnson bowed to the pressure to resign as prime minister .

Although former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss took over as party leader and premier, she, too, resigned less than two months later after several public missteps. Initially interested in reclaiming the job, Johnson withdrew his name from consideration shortly before Sunak was announced as the new PM on October 24, 2022.

Johnson has authored several books, dating back to his tales from the campaign trail with Friends, Voters, Countrymen (2001). Other works include the novel Seventy-Two Virgins (2003); an examination of antiquity with The Dream of Rome (2006); a book of poetry and illustrations with The Perils of the Pushy Parents (2007); and the biography The Churchill Factor (2014).

Wives and Children

Johnson has been married three times and fathered seven children. After meeting Allegra Mostyn-Owen at Oxford, the two were married in 1987 before having the union annulled in 1993. That year Johnson wed lawyer Marina Wheeler, with whom he had daughters Lara and Cassia and sons Milo and Theodore.

Following the revelation that he had another daughter, Stephanie, with journalist Helen MacIntyre, Johnson and Wheeler divorced in 2018. The prime minister then married public relations executive Carrie Symonds in 2021 and added to his family with son Wilfred and daughter Romy.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1964
• Birth date: June 19, 1964
• Best Known For: Conservative British politician Boris Johnson became the second elected mayor of London before overseeing the U.K.'s departure from the European Union as prime minister.
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Gemini
• University of Oxford, Balliol College
• Interesting Facts
• Johnson was the third published novelist to become U.K. prime minister, after Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill.
• Occupations
• Political Figure

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Boris Johnson Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/boris-johnson
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 1, 2022
• Original Published Date: December 1, 2022
• I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them's the breaks.
• I want to have my cake and eat it.
• All romantics need the mortar of cynicism to hold themselves up.
• People live by narrative, human beings are creatures of the imagination.

Famous Political Figures

Ronald Reagan

How Ronald Reagan Went from Movies to Politics

Mark Antony

Julius Caesar

Kamala Harris

Get to Know Kamala Harris' 2 Stepchildren

What Is Vice President Kamala Harris’ Religion?

Teddy Roosevelt’s Stolen Watch Recovered by FBI

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Founding Fathers: What Were They Really Like?

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center
• Introduction & Top Questions

Early life and career as a journalist

Election to parliament, mayor of london, return to parliament, the brexit referendum, and failed pursuit of the conservative leadership, tenure as foreign secretary, ascent to prime minister, battling the coronavirus sars-cov-2 pandemic.

• “Partygate”

Resignation in disgrace

• When was London founded?
• Was London bombed during World War II?
• What is London known for?

Boris Johnson

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• GlobalSecurity.org - Biography of Boris Johnson
• Boris Johnson - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Boris Johnson - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

When did Boris Johnson become the prime minister of the United Kingdom?

Boris Johnson officially became prime minister of the United Kingdom on July 24, 2019. On July 7, 2022, he announced that he would step down as prime minister once his party named a new leader.

Where was Boris Johnson born?

Boris Johnson was born in New York City, New York, U.S., on June 19, 1964.

How many times was Boris Johnson elected mayor of London?

Boris Johnson was elected twice as mayor of London. On May 1, 2008, Johnson won a narrow victory by defeating Ken Livingstone . In 2012 he was reelected mayor, besting Livingstone again.

What was Boris Johnson's position on Brexit?

Boris Johnson was a leading spokesman for the “Leave” campaign in the run-up to the June 23, 2016, national referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union .

Did Boris Johnson write a book about Winston Churchill?

Boris Johnson wrote The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History (2014), based on the life of Winston Churchill.

Recent News

Boris Johnson (born June 19, 1964, New York City, New York , U.S.) is an American-born British journalist and Conservative Party politician who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in July 2019. He left office in September 2022 after being forced by scandal to resign. Earlier he served as the second elected mayor of London (2008–16) and as secretary of state for foreign affairs (2016–18) under Prime Minister Theresa May .

As a child, Johnson lived in New York City , London, and Brussels before attending boarding school in England . He won a scholarship to Eton College and later studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford , where he was president of the Oxford Union. After briefly working as a management consultant, Johnson embarked on a career in journalism . He started as a reporter for The Times in 1987 but was fired for fabricating a quotation. He then began working for The Daily Telegraph , where he served as a correspondent covering the European Community (1989–94) and later as an assistant editor (1994–99). In 1994 Johnson became a political columnist for The Spectator , and in 1999 he was named the magazine’s editor, continuing in that role until 2005.

In 1997 Johnson was selected as the Conservative candidate for Clwyd South in the House of Commons , but he lost decisively to the Labour Party incumbent Martyn Jones. Soon after, Johnson began appearing on a variety of television shows, beginning in 1998 with the BBC talk program Have I Got News for You . His bumbling demeanour and occasionally irreverent remarks made him a perennial favourite on British talk shows. Johnson again stood for Parliament in 2001, this time winning the contest in the Henley-on-Thames constituency . Though he continued to appear frequently on British television programs and became one of the country’s most-recognized politicians, Johnson’s political rise was threatened on a number of occasions. He was forced to apologize to the city of Liverpool after the publication of an insensitive editorial in The Spectator , and in 2004 he was dismissed from his position as shadow arts minister after rumours surfaced of an affair between Johnson and a journalist. Despite such public rebukes, Johnson was reelected to his parliamentary seat in 2005.

Johnson entered into the London mayoral election in July 2007, challenging Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone . During the tightly contested election, he overcame perceptions that he was a gaffe-prone and insubstantial politician by focusing on issues of crime and transportation. On May 1, 2008, Johnson won a narrow victory, seen by many as a repudiation of the national Labour government led by Gordon Brown . Early the following month, Johnson fulfilled a campaign promise by stepping down as MP. In 2012 Johnson was reelected mayor, besting Livingstone again. His win was one of the few bright spots for the Conservative Party in the midterm local elections in which it lost more than 800 seats in England, Scotland , and Wales .

While pursuing his political career, Johnson continued to write. His output as an author included Lend Me Your Ears (2003), a collection of essays; Seventy-two Virgins (2004), a novel; and The Dream of Rome (2006), a historical survey of the Roman Empire. In 2014 he added The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History , which was described by one reviewer as a “breathless romp through the life and times” of Winston Churchill .

Johnson returned to Parliament in 2015, winning the west London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, in an election that saw the Conservative Party capture its first clear majority since the 1990s. He retained his post as mayor of London, and the victory fueled speculation that he would eventually challenge Prime Minister David Cameron for leadership of the Conservative Party.

Some critics, however, charged that Johnson’s personal political ambitions led him to be less interested and less involved in his job as mayor than he was in self-promotion. Even before leaving the office of mayor—having chosen not to run for reelection in 2016—Johnson became the leading spokesman for the “Leave” campaign in the run-up to the June 23, 2016, national referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union . In that capacity, he faced off with Cameron, who was the country’s most prominent proponent of Britain remaining in the EU, and came under criticism for equating the EU’s efforts to unify Europe with those undertaken by Napoleon I and Adolf Hitler .

When all of the votes were counted in the referendum, some 52 percent of those who went to the polls had opted for Britain to leave the EU, prompting Cameron to announce his imminent resignation as prime minister. He said that his successor should oversee the negotiations with the EU over Britain’s withdrawal and that he would step down before the Conservative Party conference in October 2016. Many observers believed that the path now had been laid for Johnson’s ascent to the party leadership and the premiership.

In the morning at the end of June when he was set to officially announce his candidacy, however, Johnson was deserted by his key ally and prospective campaign chairman, Michael Gove , the justice secretary. Gove, who had worked alongside Johnson on the “Leave” campaign, concluded that Johnson could not “provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead” and, instead of backing Johnson’s candidacy, announced his own. The British media were quick to see betrayals of Shakespearean proportions in the political drama involving Cameron, Johnson, and Gove, whose families had been close and who had moved up the ranks of the Conservative Party together. When he left, Gove took several of Johnson’s key lieutenants with him, and Johnson, seemingly concluding that he no longer had enough support in the party to win its leadership, quickly withdrew his candidacy.

When Theresa May became Conservative Party leader and prime minister, she named Johnson her foreign secretary. Johnson maintained his seat in the House of Commons in the snap election called by May for June 2017, and he remained foreign secretary when May reshuffled her cabinet after the Conservatives lost their legislative majority in that election and formed a minority government. In April 2018 Johnson defended May’s decision to join the United States and France in the strategic air strikes that were undertaken against the regime of Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad in response to evidence that it had again used chemical weapons on its own people. Opposition parties were critical of the May government’s use of force without having first sought approval from Parliament.

Johnson himself was taken to task in some quarters for statements he had made regarding an incident in March 2018 in which a former Russian intelligence officer who had acted as a double agent for Britain was found unconscious with his daughter in Salisbury , England. Investigators believed that the pair had been exposed to a “ novichok ,” a complex nerve agent that had been developed by the Soviets, but Johnson was accused of misleading the public by saying that Britain’s top military laboratory had determined with certainty that the novichok used in the attack had come from Russia; the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory actually had only identified the substance as a novichok. Nonetheless, the British government was confident enough of the likelihood of Russian complicity in the attack that it expelled nearly two dozen Russian intelligence operatives who had been working in Britain under diplomatic cover. In May 2018 Johnson was the target of a prank—also thought to have been perpetrated by Russia—when a recording was made of a telephone conversation between him and a pair of individuals, one of whom fooled Johnson by pretending to be the new prime minister of Armenia.

While all these events unfolded, Johnson remained a persistent advocate of “hard” Brexit as May’s government struggled to formulate the details of its exit strategy for its negotiations with the EU. Johnson publicly (and not always tactfully) cautioned May to not relinquish British autonomy in pursuit of maintaining close economic involvement in the common market. When May summoned her cabinet to Chequers , the prime minister’s country retreat, on July 6, 2018, to try to reach a nuts-and-bolts consensus on its Brexit plan, Johnson reportedly was crudely obstinate. Nonetheless, by the gathering’s end, he seemed to have joined the other cabinet members in support of May’s softer approach to Brexit. However, after Brexit secretary David Davis resigned on July 8, saying that he could not continue as Britain’s chief negotiator with the EU because May was “giving too much away, too easily,” Johnson followed suit the next day, tendering his resignation as foreign secretary. In his letter of resignation, Johnson wrote in part:

It is more than two years since the British people voted to leave the European Union on an unambiguous and categorical promise that if they did so they would be taking back control of their democracy . They were told that they would be able to manage their own immigration policy, repatriate the sums of UK cash currently spent by the EU, and, above all, that they would be able to pass laws independently and in the interests of the people of this country.… That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.

May named Jeremy Hunt , the long-serving health secretary, as Johnson’s replacement.

Meanwhile, Johnson remained a persistent critic of May’s attempts to push her version of Brexit through Parliament. After failing twice to win support for her plan in votes in the House of Commons, May, in a closed-door meeting with rank-and-file members of the Conservative Party on March 27, 2019, pledged to step down as prime minister if Parliament approved her plan. This time around, the promise of May’s imminent departure won Johnson’s support for her plan; however, once again it went down to defeat. Having failed to win sufficient support for her plan from Conservatives, unable to negotiate a compromise with the opposition, and assailed by ever more members of her own party, May announced that she would resign as party leader on June 7 but remain as caretaker prime minister until her party had chosen her successor.

This opened up a campaign to replace her that found Johnson among 10 candidates who were put to the parliamentary party in a series of Ivotes that eventually winnowed the field to four contenders: Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, and Sajid Javid , the home secretary. After Gove and Javid fell by the wayside in subsequent votes, Johnson and Hunt stood as the final candidates in an election in which all of the party’s nearly 160,000 members were eligible to vote. Some 87 percent of those eligible voters participated and elevated Johnson to the leadership when the results were announced on July 23. In winning 92,153 votes, Johnson captured some 66 percent of the vote, compared with about 34 percent for Hunt, who garnered 46,656 votes.

Johnson had campaigned on a promise to leave the EU without a deal (“no-deal Brexit”) if the exit agreement with the EU was not altered to his satisfaction by October 31, 2019, the revised departure deadline that had been negotiated by May. In his victory speech, he pledged to “ d eliver Brexit, u nite the country, and d efeat Jeremy Corbyn” and then rounded out the dud acronym for his pledge to dude by promising to “ e nergize the country.” On July 24 Johnson officially became prime minister.

Faced with a threat by Corbyn to hold a vote of confidence and then confronted by a broader effort by opponents of a no-deal Brexit to move toward legislation that would prevent that option for leaving the EU, Johnson boldly announced on August 28 that he had requested the queen to prorogue Parliament, delaying its resumption from its scheduled suspension for the yearly political party conferences. The schedule called for Parliament to convene during the first two weeks of September and then to take a break until October 9. Johnson reset the return date for October 14, just over two weeks before the Brexit deadline. The queen’s approval of the request, a formality, was granted shortly after it was submitted by Johnson. Outraged critics of Johnson’s initiative argued that he was seeking to limit debate and narrow the window of opportunity for taking legislative action on an alternative to a no-deal departure. Johnson denied that this was his intention and emphasized his desire to move forward on Britain’s domestic agenda.

Opponents of a no-deal Brexit took the offensive on September 3, as members of the opposition and 21 rebellious Conservative MPs came together on a vote that allowed the House of Commons to temporarily usurp the government’s control of the legislative body’s agenda (as it had earlier done during May’s tenure as prime minister). The 328–301 vote was a humiliating defeat for Johnson, who responded vindictively by effectively expelling the 21 dissident MPs from the Conservative Party. Taking control of the agenda of the House of Commons allowed those opposed to a no-deal Brexit to set the stage for a vote on a bill that would mandate Johnson to request a delay for Brexit. Johnson sought to regain control of the narrative by announcing that he would call for a snap election. Under the Fixed Terms of Parliament Act , however, a prime minister must win the support of at least two-thirds of the House of Commons to hold such an election when it falls outside of the body’s fixed five-year terms, meaning that Johnson would have to win opposition support for that vote. The political drama heightened on September 4, as the House of Commons voted 327–299 to force Johnson to request a delay of the British withdrawal from the EU until January 31, 2020, if by October 19, 2019, he had not either submitted an agreement on Brexit for Parliament’s approval or gotten the House of Commons to approve a no-deal Brexit.

By October Johnson was able to find common ground with the EU on a renegotiated agreement that greatly resembled May’s proposal but replaced the backstop with a plan to keep Northern Ireland aligned with the EU for at least four years from the end of the transition period. On October 22 the House of Commons approved Johnson’s revised plan in principle but then quickly stymied his effort to push the agreement through to formal Parliamentary acceptance before the October 31 deadline. Thus, Johnson was compelled to ask the EU for an extension of the deadline, which was granted, and the deadline was reset for January 31, 2020. With no-deal Brexit off the table, Corbyn indicated that he would now support an early election, which was scheduled for December 12. After three failed attempts to hold a snap election, Johnson was finally able to take his case to the people, and during the campaign he promised to deliver Brexit by the new deadline. Although Johnson’s solution to the backstop pitfall looked certain to lose him the support of the Democratic Unionist Party , opinion polling prior to the election showed the Conservatives to be the likely winners and poised to gain seats. When the votes were counted, the projected Conservative victory proved to be wildly more decisive than anyone had expected. In winning 365 seats, the party increased its presence in the House of Commons by 47 seats and recorded its most commanding win in a parliamentary election since 1987. With a solid majority in place, Johnson stood poised to guide his preferred version of Brexit across the finish line.

In his address to the British people late on January 31, 2020, as the U.K. formally withdrew from the EU, Johnson said:

This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act in our great national drama.

Although the formal withdrawal had taken place, final details relating to a new trade deal between the U.K. and the EU remained to be hammered out, and the deadline for agreement on this was set for December 31, 2020. Perhaps not surprisingly, those negotiations also proved to be protracted and often bitter; however, Johnson was able to announce that an accord had been reached on December 24. The 2,000-page agreement specified that there would be no limits or taxes on goods traded between U.K. and EU parties but there would now be a regimen of extensive paperwork for such transactions and for the transport of goods. Moreover, the freedom to live, work, and study in one another’s countries that U.K. nationals and EU citizens had enjoyed would be eliminated for many. Fishing rights, which had proved to be a particular sticking point in the negotiations, were agreed upon for a five-year period only.

As important as these negotiations were, they took a back seat to the catastrophic public health crisis that came to dominate events not only in the U.K. and the EU but also in the world as a whole—the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic , which likely originated in China , where the first cases were reported in December 2019. Heeding the controversial guidance of its key scientific advisers that the best way to limit the long-term effects of the pandemic would be to allow the virus to spread naturally and thus generate “herd immunity,” the Johnson government initially took a low-key approach to combating the pandemic, which was at odds with the aggressive measures taken in much of the rest of the world. By mid-March 2020, as COVID-19, the potentially deadly disease caused by the virus, began spreading rapidly in Britain, the fallacy of this approach had become clear, and the government imposed social-distancing and mask-wearing requirements, along with a lockdown that included the closing of schools, pubs, restaurants, and other businesses.

The severity of the crisis became very personal for Johnson when he contracted the virus at the end of March, became so ill that he had to be hospitalized, and, with his life in danger, spent three nights in an intensive-care unit. While he was incapacitated, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab steered the government. After Johnson returned to his post, the grateful prime minister in his Easter message to the country on April 12 thanked the health care workers who had saved his life, called on Britons to adhere to social-distancing measures, and lavished praise on the National Health Service (NHS) for its response to the crisis:

We will win because our NHS is the beating heart of this country. It is the best of this country. It is unconquerable. It is powered by love.

Over the coming year, Johnson initiated and rescinded a series of stay-at-home orders (which varied by region) as the spread of the disease waxed and waned in Britain. Although many observers were critical of Johnson’s slow, unsteady response to the crisis, British scientists, aided by government funding, made historically rapid advances on the vaccine front. Notably, the University of Oxford and the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca developed and successfully tested one of the first effective vaccines. Moreover, in December 2020 the U.K. became the first country to approve and deploy the Pfizer -BioNTech vaccine, with which it quickly began a national immunization program. Nonetheless, by March 2021 the U.K. had suffered more COVID-19-related deaths (about 126,000) than all but four other countries (the United States, Brazil , Mexico , and India)—a situation that had been made worse in September 2020 by the emergence in Britain of a new, more easily transmissible variant of the disease (B.1.1.7).

“ Partygate ”

The Johnson government’s response to the pandemic would make headlines for very different reasons beginning in late November 2021, when reports began surfacing that members of the prime minister’s cabinet and staff, as well as Johnson himself, had attended parties earlier in the pandemic that violated prohibitions on social gatherings set forth by the government. Dubbed “Partygate,” the resulting scandal hinged not only on the nature of the alleged violations but also on Johnson’s initial insistence that the government-issued guidelines had been “followed at all times.” As reports came to light of an increasing number of illegal social gatherings at Downing Street, during lockdowns imposed because of the public health crisis in 2020 and 2021, Johnson apologized for having attended one such party at which drinks were served but which he said he had thought was going to be a work event. A picture began to emerge of a culture of excessive workplace drinking in Johnson’s orbit and of a prime minister who had misled Parliament with his claim that no pandemic-related rules had been broken—the last being an offense that historically had called for resignation.

In late January 2022 an investigation into the affair by senior civil servant Sue Gray was reported to Parliament, though in a truncated and redacted form so as not to compromise the investigation into a number of gatherings that had been subsequently undertaken by the London Metropolitan Police . Gray indicated that “there were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No. 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times” and that “some of the events should not have been allowed to take place” whereas “other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.” Johnson apologized again to Parliament and was roundly castigated , even by Conservatives, some of whom joined members of the opposition in calling on the prime minister to step down. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, which united most of the West in support of Ukraine, seemed to forestall the threat to Johnson’s staying in office, as many Britons appeared to feel that the moment of existential crisis for Europe brought on by Russia’s aggression was not the time for a change of leadership. Nevertheless, Johnson’s grip on power remained precarious , especially after the police investigation led to Johnson’s being served a “fixed penalty notice” in April and being fined for his transgressions of pandemic-related rules, making him the first incumbent British prime minister in living memory found to have broken the law.

By the first week of June, fallout from the release of the full report by Gray (in May) and growing discontent with the prime minister’s role in the Partygate scandal had led no fewer than 54 Conservative members of Parliament to send letters to the party’s 1922 Committee requesting Johnson’s resignation. Many of them were concerned that Johnson’s damaged brand would prove to be a liability in the next scheduled parliamentary elections, some two years in the offing. With the number of written requests required to force a vote on leadership of the party having been met, 359 Conservative members of Parliament on the evening of June 6 participated in a secret ballot vote of confidence in Johnson. To survive as leader, Johnson needed to get 180 affirmative votes. He got 211, but the 148 MPs who voted against him constituted roughly 40 percent of the party’s representation in the House of Commons and exceeded in number the 133 MPs who had voted against Theresa May in the 2018 vote of confidence in her leadership that preceded her resignation by some six months. Under party rules, a subsequent vote on Johnson’s leadership could not be held for another year, but, as Britain struggled with inflated prices of fuel and groceries, public approval of the Labour Party was growing in preference polling that did not bode well for Johnson. Moreover, he had very publicly lost the support of prominent Tories such Jeremy Hunt and William Hague .

Only weeks after he survived the confidence vote, Johnson’s standing as party leader was further shaken by the loss of two Conservative seats in by-elections on June 24, 2022, in Tiverton and Honiton and in Wakefield . Sexual scandals had forced the resignation of the Conservative MPs holding those seats, and in early July Johnson’s handling of another sexual scandal, involving Conservative Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher, would finally force the resignation of the embattled prime minister whose grip on power had for so long seemed impervious to scandal. This time Johnson and his spokespeople repeatedly changed their story regarding Johnson’s awareness of allegations of sexual misconduct that had been brought against Pincher both in the run-up to his appointment as deputy chief whip and in 2019 during his tenure in the Foreign Office. When Johnson ultimately claimed that he simply had forgotten being briefed about Pincher’s 2019 indiscretion, it proved to be the last straw for two key ministers, Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak , who resigned their cabinet posts on July 5. Despite the short-term statutory protection against another vote of confidence in Johnson’s party leadership, his support within the parliamentary Conservative Party continued to crumble, and senior party members threatened to change the party rules to allow for another confidence vote if Johnson did not resign. Despite the multitude of defections, Johnson initially dug in his heels. Indeed, he fired his erstwhile ally Michael Gove from his position as levelling up secretary after Gove joined in pressuring Johnson to resign. Finally, on July 7 Johnson announced his immediate resignation as party leader but said that he would remain as prime minister until the Conservatives had chosen a new leader.

On September 6, Liz Truss , Johnson’s foreign secretary, replaced him as prime minister, though her tenure in office would prove to be the shortest in British history . Still immensely popular with the party’s base, Johnson was under consideration as Truss’s replacement despite his fall from grace. During the scramble to choose a new Conservative leader in October, Johnson made a hurried return to Britain from a vacation in the Dominican Republic , but he chose rather quickly to stand aside in deference to Sunak . On June 9, 2023, Johnson received the final report of the Privileges Committee, a cross-party investigatory body that had been tasked with determining whether or not he had willingly misled Parliament during the Partygate scandal. He announced his resignation as MP that day, decrying the committee as a “kangaroo court” that had been determined to “drive me out of Parliament.”

Boris Johnson is finally undone by the traits that long defined Britain’s political Houdini

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson 's announcement Thursday that he would resign ends a tumultuous tenure that began on a wave of Brexit enthusiasm , but crashed on a  series of scandals and an internal revolt that sparked a political crisis.

Facing public distrust and  mounting discontent  in his own party and government, Johnson had defiantly sought to cling to power. He finally said he would quit after a crushing number of his own lawmakers moved to topple their once-talismanic leader, saying he was no longer fit to govern just a month after he survived a vote of confidence .

“Them’s the breaks,” a rueful but unrepentant Johnson said in a speech outside his No. 10 Downing St. home and office that capped days of drama and was met with boos. "As we’ve seen at Westminster," he said, referring to the central London area where Parliament is located, "the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves."

Johnson's decision to step down as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party will trigger a leadership race, with the winner set to become the United Kingdom's fourth prime minister in the six years since the June 2016 Brexit referendum. Johnson said he planned to remain in office until a successor is chosen — a move that faced immediate opposition from others in an increasingly hostile Parliament.

Johnson, 58, has always been a divisive figure, but his popularity among Conservative Party lawmakers and members had until now largely withstood the twin stresses of Covid and Brexit during his two-and-a-half-year leadership. Britain is also grappling with a cost-of-living crisis and the challenges of Russia’s war in Ukraine .

It was not until revelations of alcohol-fueled parties Johnson and his aides held during pandemic lockdowns that his political fortunes truly turned and his rule-defying insouciance, once a superpower, became his political kryptonite.

Months of fury over the scandal, known in the U.K. as "partygate," sent poll ratings for Johnson and his party plummeting. He and his wife were booed as they arrived for a Platinum Jubilee event last month.

Johnson narrowly survived a vote of confidence among his own lawmakers, leaving him damaged but still in power and his party bitterly divided. But within weeks, another scandal forced a lawmaker to step down from his senior role involving party discipline and welfare amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Even some who had said they personally liked and respected Johnson felt that the latest scandals and the shifting explanations over his handling of them were too much.

“It’s very sad but I’m relieved that he has stood down,” John Baron, a lawmaker from eastern England, told NBC News on Thursday. “I just wish we hadn’t been through these last few days. It must have been painful for his family and certainly painful for the country to watch.”

Even as the stream of ministers abandoning his government turned to a flood, Johnson initially refused to give in to what seemed an undeniable political reality.

“Any other PM wouldn’t have put their colleagues and country through the chaos of the last 48 hours,” Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said. “To the extent that Johnson refused to face up to reality for longer than any rational, democratic politician would have, that really was unprecedented.”

Hailed by some commentators as a scruffy colossus remaking British politics, Johnson’s abrupt fall from grace will see him leave office with his reputation in tatters and his country facing a precarious moment.

The opposition Labour Party — led by former lawyer Keir Starmer, whose prosecutorial style is the antithesis of the deliberately ragged Johnson — has opened a commanding lead over the Conservatives in the polls. But the next general election is not scheduled until 2024, and a new Tory leader could upend things again.

It is a remarkable downfall for a man who defied doubters to strike the Brexit deal with the European Union before winning an electoral landslide in 2019 and promising sweeping reforms for a country that has spent years mired in division and dysfunction.

Johnson claimed big victories in rolling out Covid vaccines and lifting pandemic restrictions faster than many other nations. But in recent months, his administration has been dogged by the string of scandals and fumbles. His government has also faced criticism over plans to override its own Brexit deal in relation to Northern Ireland and its policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Born in New York City and educated at Eton College and Oxford University, Johnson was fired by the British newspaper The Times in 1987 for making up a quote. And once elected to Parliament, he was dismissed from a senior position in his party in 2004 after rumors surfaced of an affair with a journalist.

He has seven children: four with his ex-wife, Marina Wheeler, one during an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre, and two with his wife, Carrie Johnson. Until recently he had refused to confirm exactly how many offspring he had.

Johnson served as the mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, winning fans across the political spectrum with his socially liberal approach and flamboyant, zip-wire charm. He was a celebrity politician even before that, his deliberately disheveled style setting him apart from his more conventional peers.

He led the “Leave” campaign in the 2016 referendum and won the 2019 election by flipping a slew of traditional working class Labour Party seats in the midlands and the north, the so-called Red Wall, to deliver the party’s biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. 

Less than three years later, his tenure is at its end after one scandal too many.

Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.

Mo Abbas is a multimedia producer for NBC News based in London.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

How Boris Johnson Fell, and What Happens Next

Britain’s prime minister said he would step down, less than three years after a landslide election victory. Here’s a guide to why he was forced out and who might succeed him.

By Stephen Castle and Peter Robins

LONDON — One of his predecessors described him as a “greased piglet”: a man who could slip out of any tight situation.

And despite a damaging scandal involving parties during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown that brought him a fine and a stinging official report, Prime Minister Boris Johnson might have expected to be in a strong position.

A little less than three years ago, Mr. Johnson led the Conservative Party to its biggest election victory in decades. Until the next general election — on a date set by the prime minister, and potentially as late as January 2025 — only his own party’s lawmakers could force him out.

Early in June, they declined to do so, backing him in a no-confidence vote . And yet on July 7, after a new scandal prompted a torrent of resignations and denunciations from cabinet ministers and other officials, he announced that he would step down once his party had chosen a successor.

Here’s a guide to how he got to that point, and to the process that will decide his replacement.

The Fall of a Prime Minister

The trouble started with ‘partygate,’ but it didn’t end there..

• Boris Johnson’s critics had already tried and failed to remove him.
• But then came the cabinet resignations.
• And there was heavy pressure behind the scenes.
• There isn’t a clear successor.
• And it might take a while to chose one.

Since late last year, Mr. Johnson has been grappling with a series of reports about parties in Downing Street, where British prime ministers both live and work, while Covid lockdown rules were in force. The scandal became known as “partygate.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Biography Online

Boris Johnson Biography

Early life of Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson was born on 19th June 1964. His full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson but chooses to use the shortened version of Boris.

Boris is the son of Stanley Johnson, who is descended from Turkish ancestry and a former member of the European Parliament. Boris was educated at Eton, and Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied classics. During his time at Oxford University, he became president of the prestigious Oxford Union. It is claimed that he was the preferred candidate of the Social Democrat party, although Boris claims he was never an active participant in the centre-left party. During his time at Oxford, he also became involved in various drinking clubs, such as the Bullingdon Club. This drinking society was associated with a “Hurray Henry” mentality. Boris has maintained this impression of being an Oxford toff, into his political and public life. In his own words Boris has said:

“A wise guy playing the fool to win” [2]

The media have often referred to him as “Bozzer”.

On graduating from Oxford he spent one week as a management consultant, before having to resign he memorably said:

“Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious ” [3]

In 1999, his profile led him to be hired as editor of the Spectator; his position led to considerable controversy. Not least, over an editorial criticising the people of Liverpool for being “overly sentimental” in response to the murder of British hostage Ken Bigley. The editorial created uproar in Liverpool; Boris Johnson was forced by his party leader Michael Howard to travel to Liverpool to apologise for his behaviour. Boris did go to Liverpool though he faced a frosty reaction.

Boris Johnson as MP

Boris Johnson and Mayor of London

In July 2007, Boris Johnson resigned from his position as shadow education secretary so that he would be free to stand as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. He was successful in beating the incumbent Ken Livingstone. As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has forged a strong political identity, often criticising his own party, for example over placing a cap on housing benefits, which hurts London more than other areas. Describing his own political views, Johnson states:

“[I am] free-market, tolerant, broadly libertarian (though perhaps not ultra-libertarian), inclined to see the merit of traditions, anti-regulation, pro-immigrant, pro-standing on your own two feet, pro-alcohol, pro-hunting, pro-motorist and ready to defend to the death the right of Glenn Hoddle to believe in reincarnation.”

Boris Johnson

From 2008-16, Johnson served as Mayor of London becoming one of the highest-profile politicians in the UK. He has often been rumoured as a credible leadership candidate for the Conservative party, though he often denied this. In 2012, Johnson was re-elected Mayor of London, again defeating Ken Livingstone.

How did Boris Johnson become Mayor of London?

• Developed a high media profile through appearances on TV
• Ability to turn gaffes into public relation successes.
• An appeal to young people across traditional party boundaries.
• Gave the impression of charismatic and unique personality, an increasing rarity in modern politics.
• It was partly a backlash against the Labour government in 2007, but primarily because of Johnson’s personal profile. It is rare for Conservatives to do well in London.
• Ken Livingston had his own high public profile after eight years in the job, but there was some desire for a change

Boris Johnson and Cycling

Boris is well known for his love of cycling and frequently commutes to work through the busy streets of London. As mayor of London, he implemented an existing idea to provide hire bikes in London. For a time, they became known as the “Boris Bike”.

He has had many bikes stolen and has written extensively on the injustice of bike theft. For example, he notes that on having a bike stole people usually respond by criticising the cyclist for not taking sufficient precautions or buying a bike that is too flash. He admits that he has fantasised over leaving dummy bikes as bait for thieves and then setting the Navy Seals on to the criminals.

Boris Johnson and Have I got News for You

In 1998 Boris Johnson first appeared on Have I Got News for You . His appearance was considered a success, and he was invited back for future episodes and also twice to host the show. Johnson’s comedy persona of playing the ‘Upper-Class Twit’ made him a media celebrity and raised his profile beyond the political class. Usually, the show lasts for 30 minutes. With Boris in the chair, there were frequent pauses and extra time getting through questions. Merton and Hislop affectionately refer to Johnson as “Wodehousian”, and agree that “every time he’s on it gets better”.

Some of his quotes from the show include:

“We’re moving irresistibly towards a conclusion.” “Badgers badgers badger badger badgers.” “There may be a reason I can’t think of, but the problem with that reason is that I can’t think of it now.” “I think I was once given cocaine, but I sneezed, so it didn’t go up my nose. In fact, it may have been icing sugar.” “I could not fail to disagree with you less.” [1]

– Boris Johnson, Have I Got News for You

Boris Johnson and London Olympics

Boris was a key figurehead for the successful 2012 London Olympics. Even getting stuck on a high wire, did Boris no harm. At the end of the London Olympics, Johnson said:

“But I suppose there are two emotions – one is obviously some sadness that it is all over, because it’s been an amazing experience, but also a great relief because there is no doubt it has been a prodigious exertion by London and by Londoners.”

Boris Johnson and EU Referendum

In February 2016, Boris Johnson announced he would back the Vote Leave campaign. His decision to support Vote Leave rather than the PM’s ‘Remain’ campaign was seen as a highly influential decision – as his high profile could swing many undecided voters. Johnson, who had previously spoken of the benefits of the Single Market, stated it was a difficult decision. Indeed Boris Johnson wrote two articles – one supporting Leave, one supporting Remain. He stated he wrote two different articles to help make up his mind. Critics argued it showed his insincerity and some feel his decision to support Vote Leave was partly motivated by the belief it would help best his political career.

On the eve of the Referendum, Johnson appeared on a live TV debate and declared 23 June could be “Britain’s independence day”. Against many expectations, Britain voted to leave EU by a majority of 52% – 48%. After the result, the Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, leading to a leadership campaign for the Conservative Party. It was expected Boris Johnson would be the front-runner as he was the most popular with party activists. However, to many people’s surprise, his fellow Vote Leave campaigner Michael Gove announced his decision to stand, causing Johnson to re-evaluate and unexpectedly announce he would not stand after all. In the end, Theresa May, who nominally supported Vote Remain was chosen as party leader.

Despite differences with Theresa May, she appointed Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Boris Johnson later resigned critical of the direction of Theresa May and her withdrawal bill.

In the summer of 2019, Johnson won the leadership contest for the Conservative Party becoming Prime Minister. His main commitment was to take take the UK out of the EU by 31 October 2019 – saying he would rather ‘die in a ditch than ask for a Brexit extension’. However, Johnson lost his first six votes in Parliament. As Parliament passed a bill preventing the UK from leaving the EU without a deal. Johnson also lost a vote to gain an early election.

2019 election

In the November 2019 election, Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister with a large majority, gaining 43% of the vote – with the Conservatives gaining seats in pro-Brexit Labour heartlands in the north and Midlands. His slogan of “Get Brexit Done” appealed to those who had voted Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Johnson benefitted from the unpopularity of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was seen as far left. Despite the large majority, his popularity ratings were – 22 – a reflection of his divisive politics and legacy of appearing to tell lies or misleading statements.

In 2020, Boris Johnson headed up the UK’s government response to Covid-19, ordering a lockdown in March. He test positive himself for the virus in early April 2020. He was taken to St. Thomas’ Hospital and intensive care after his symptoms worsened. He received around the clock care from two nurses. After spending time in hospital he was released when his symptoms improved. Boris Johnson praised “the brilliant care he has received.” and stated that it could have gone either way.

In 2021/22, details emerged that unauthorised parties had taken place in number 10 Downing Street – when the rest of the country was in lockdown. Initially, Boris Johnson tried to deny he had broken any rules, but his position increasingly looked untenable as more details emerged of the extent and number at the parties. His former chief of staff Dominic Cummings was a key figure in leaking details of the parties, saying that “It is his duty to get rid of Boris Johnson.”

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan .  “Biography of Boris Johnson ”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , Published 11th Feb 2013. Last updated 10 Jan 2022.

Johnson’s Life of London

Boris Johnson has authored several books on Ancient Rome, Winston Churchill and a best selling account of the history of London.

Johnson’s Life of London at Amazon

[1] 2004 winner of the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign, for his comment on the 12 December 2003 edition of Have I Got News For You [1]

[2] Boris Johnson, Sunday Times, 16 July 2000, p. 17.

[3] The Herald (Glasgow), 13 November 2004, p. 15.

Related pages

Boris Johnson Links

• Boris Johnson Quotes
• Boris Johnson.com – official site of Boris Johnson
• Boris Johnson – Have I got views for you at Amazon.co.uk
• Boris Johnson – Have I got views for you at Amazon.com

• United Kingdom

Boris Johnson Shattered Britain’s Political Norms. Ultimately, That Was His Undoing

B oris Johnson has a few days left as U.K. Prime Minister, but his time in office feels as though it has already come to an end. His belongings have been removed from the Prime Minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street. He has deferred major decisions to address the country’s cost-of-living crisis to the next government. And as the rest of the country awaits the outcome of the Conservative Party’s leadership contest that will determine his successor—the results of which will be announced on Sept. 5—Johnson is embarking on a farewell tour before returning to the House of Commons, where he plans to reprise his role as a rank-and-file parliamentarian.

Although Johnson is hardly the first British leader to go from serving in the country’s highest political office to the backbenches of parliament—where lawmakers who don’t hold cabinet positions sit—his fall from power seems particularly tragic by comparison. That’s perhaps because, for a long while, it seemed as though there was nothing that could bring Johnson down. The 58-year-old journalist-turned-politician rose to international prominence as one of the leading campaigners for Britain to leave the E.U. And, after several years of stalled negotiations and parliamentary wrangling over what the country’s exit from the bloc should look like, he entered Downing Street in 2019 on the back of a pledge to “get Brexit done.” Johnson’s landslide election victory that same year gave his Conservative Party a mandate to govern with its largest parliamentary majority in more than 30 years.

If it were up to Johnson, perhaps the extent of his legacy would be: a short-lived, but nonetheless consequential, Prime Minister who transformed Britain’s place in the world all the while leading the country through the COVID-19 pandemic and a war in Europe. But as the country reflects on the past three years of Johnson’s leadership, another narrative emerges—one defined by the repeated undermining of the norms and values underpinning Britain’s political culture, perhaps beyond repair.

If Johnson’s political descent seems more extreme than that of his predecessors, it’s because “he had further to fall,” says Anand Menon, director of the London-based think tank U.K. in a Changing Europe. Johnson has said he wanted to carry on serving into the 2030s . But his term—general elections are due in late 2024 or early 2025—would not have been cut short were it not for a series of self-inflicted scandals, most notably his failure to adhere to his own government’s pandemic restrictions. Lockdown parties at 10 Downing Street earned Johnson the distinct dishonor of becoming the country’s first sitting Prime Minister ever to be fined for breaking the law. Yet it was another scandal—the revelations that he promoted a lawmaker in February to a senior post responsible for party discipline despite knowledge of sexual misconduct allegations against him—that led to the tsunami of ministerial resignations that ultimately forced his resignation.

Read More: Why U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Resigned

Johnson’s dramatic exit notwithstanding, no singular achievement seems to tower over his legacy more so than securing Brexit—because, without him, it may never have happened. His decision to back Vote Leave—he famously penned two newspaper columns, one for and one against , before publishing the former at the eleventh-hour—was a pivotal moment in the referendum. Prior to his endorsement, Leave was polling 15 percentage points behind the Remain campaign. “The result was close enough in 2016 for it to be quite plausible to reckon that he made the difference,” says Andrew Gimson, a political journalist and the author of a forthcoming book on the U.K.’s outgoing leader.

Whether Britain’s decision to leave the E.U. has been a net positive for the country is almost as divisive as the referendum itself. Supporters believe that Brexit’s full benefits have yet to be realized; its opponents, as well as a number of economists , contend that its harms are already being felt. This is particularly true on the island of Ireland, where a renewed dispute over post-Brexit trading arrangements between Northern Ireland (which is a part of the U.K.) and the Republic of Ireland (a member of the E.U.) poses the risk of a potential trade war between London and Brussels. Meanwhile in Scotland, the legacy of Brexit (which was widely rejected by the Scottish electorate) and Johnson (who is deeply unpopular among Scots) has seen a surge in support for Scottish independence, which reached a record-level 55% last year.

The outcome of Brexit and the impact it has on the future unity of the U.K. will weigh heavily on Johnson’s legacy, not least if he comes to be remembered as the Prime Minister who ushered in a return of unrest in Northern Ireland or the breakup of the U.K . Some would argue that it already does. Despite anointing himself Minister of the Union , and leading a party whose official name is the Conservative and Unionist Party, Johnson “never tried to understand Scotland,” says Stewart McDonald, a Scottish Nationalist Party lawmaker. “He was a disaster for unionism and a gift to the cause of Scottish independence.”

But the other, perhaps even more consequential, factor that will shape how Johnson’s premiership is remembered is the legacy that he leaves on British politics itself. Aside from his stance on Brexit, much of Johnson’s popularity was rooted in his willingness to break the political mold as well as his defiant—some say clownish —brand of politics. He was an insider who successfully branded himself as an outsider and, like most insurgent-style leaders, wasn’t afraid to play fast and loose with longstanding norms and traditions, especially when he saw them as a barrier to his political goals. Johnson’s rise “was a reflection of a deep-seated dissatisfaction with politics,” says Menon from U.K. in a Changing Europe. “He was representative of a sort of anti-politics.”

This reputation gave Johnson cover to test the various rules and conventions underpinning Britain’s famously unwritten constitution and, on some occasions, even break them. He did so just weeks into his premiership, when he sought to temporarily suspend parliament in an apparent bid to prevent lawmakers from subverting his Brexit plans (a move that the U.K. Supreme Court subsequently deemed unlawful ). He did so again when he opted to ignore the advice of his ethics adviser (a role that remains vacant after his second one quit) who said a cabinet minister breached the government’s code of conduct.

On these and numerous other occasions , Johnson not only undermined what the historian Peter Hennessy has described as the “ good chap theory ” of British politics—which rests on the belief that politicians can be trusted to abide by a shared understanding of what constitutes good behavior—but modeled how future prime ministers could do the same. (Indeed, the favorite to succeed Johnson, Liz Truss, has declined to commit to appointing an ethics advisor.) But some, including Gimson, say that the fact that Johnson was forced to resign from his post is proof that the British system remains durable. Others, however, warn that the damage the norm-breaking Johnson has caused may only be realized long after he is gone.

Johnson’s premiership “certainly widened the field of what is possible for future prime ministers,” says Menon. “He has questioned the rules of the game and if someone else wants to come in and see how far they can stretch the system, I think it’s more stretchy now than it was before.”

More Must-Reads from TIME

• Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
• How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
• What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
• How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
• Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
• How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
• What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
• The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024

Write to Yasmeen Serhan/London at [email protected]

Boris Johnson Biography

Birthday: June 19 , 1964 ( Gemini )

Born In: Upper East Side, New York, United States

Boris Johnson is a British conservative politician. He became the prime minister of the United Kingdom in July 2019. He served as the mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and is serving as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015. He also served as foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018. A member of the ‘Conservative Party,’ Johnson is also a popular historian and journalist. Born in New York City to English parents, he returned to the United Kingdom during his early childhood. His parents valued high achievers and the young boy was raised to be competitive from a young age. A good student, he was awarded a ‘King's Scholarship’ to study at the prestigious ‘Eton College’ following which he studied Classics at ‘Balliol College,’ Oxford. He began his career as a journalist with ‘The Times’ and found considerable success in this profession. He went on to work as the editor of ‘The Spectator’ from 1999 to 2005. Along with journalism, he was also deeply interested in politics and was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Henley in 2001. He went on to serve on the opposition frontbench, first as Shadow Minister for Culture, Communications, and Creative Industries, and then for Higher Education. He is considered a controversial figure in British politics due to his enigmatic personality. Johnson has his own share of supporters and detractors in the world of politics.

Recommended For You

British Celebrities Born In June

Also Known As: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

Age: 60 Years , 60 Year Old Males

Spouse/Ex-: Carrie Symonds (m. 2021), Allegra Mostyn-Owen (m. 1987–1993), Marina Wheeler (m. 1993–2020)

father: Stanley Johnson

mother: Charlotte Johnson Wahl

siblings: Jo Johnson, Leo Johnson, Rachel Johnson

children: Cassia Peaches Johnson, Lara Lettice Johnson, Milo Arthur Johnson, Theodore Apollo Johnson

Born Country: United States

Prime Ministers Political Leaders

Height: 5'9" (175 cm ), 5'9" Males

political ideology: Political party - Conservative

City: New York City

U.S. State: New Yorkers

education: Balliol College, Oxford

You wanted to know

What is boris johnson's political party, how many children does boris johnson have, what is boris johnson's stance on brexit, what position did boris johnson hold before becoming prime minister, what are some key policies or initiatives boris johnson has championed as prime minister.

Recommended Lists:

Boris Johnson was born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson on 19 June 1964, in New York City, USA, to Stanley Johnson and Charlotte Johnson Wahl, as the eldest of four children. At birth, Boris was granted both American and British citizenship. The family moved to the U.K. when he was a child.

Boris was sent to ‘Ashdown House,’ a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex, where he proved to be a good student. He excelled at Ancient Greek and Latin and developed a love for rugby.

He earned a ‘King's Scholarship’ to study at the prestigious ‘Eton College.’ He proved to be a popular student. While he fared poorly in mathematics and science, he performed well in English and Classics. He began writing for his college newspaper ‘The Chronicle’ and soon became its editor.

He proceeded to study Classics at ‘Balliol College,’ Oxford, on a scholarship. Once again, he became a popular figure and was elected secretary of the ‘Oxford Union’ in 1984. He specialized in the study of Ancient Literature and Classical Philosophy and graduated with an upper second-class degree.

Boris Johnson began his career as a journalist in 1987 when he began working as a graduate trainee at ‘The Times.’ His tenure at the newspaper proved to be problematic and he was sacked from his job.

This early setback in his career did not deter him as he went on to establish himself as a much-loved journalist. Over the next few years, he worked with ‘The Daily Telegraph’ as a feature writer, EU correspondent, and assistant editor. He became the editor of ‘The Spectator’ in 1999. The magazine thrived under his editorship, adding to his reputation as a highly successful journalist.

During this period, he also began pursuing his political aspirations and became a Member of Parliament for Henley in 2001. He continued his journalistic career alongside his full-time job as an MP, holding on to his post as the editor of ‘The Spectator.’ He also wrote columns for ‘The Daily Telegraph’ and ‘GQ.’ He proved to be a popular politician despite earning a reputation for courting controversies.

In 2007, Boris Johnson announced his candidacy for the position of mayor of London in the 2008 mayoral election. During the election, the flamboyant politician won the largest personal electoral mandate in the U.K., defeating incumbent Ken Livingstone to become the mayor. He assumed office as the mayor of London in May 2008.

As the mayor, one of his initial policy initiatives was to ban drinking alcohol in public transport. He also gained some notoriety for his idleness and sloppy dressing sense. A cyclist himself, he introduced a public bicycle scheme called ‘Boris Bikes’ which became popular. He also commissioned the development of the ‘New Routemaster’ buses for central London.

During his tenure, Boris became embroiled in several controversies. However, he continued to enjoy popularity in the eyes of his ardent supporters. During the 2012 mayoral election, he sought re-election, and once again faced Livingstone. Boris Johnson won the re-election quite easily due to immense support from his followers.

During his second term, he became the co-chair of an Olympic board that oversaw the 2012 ‘London Olympic Games.’ Prior to the games, he took action to improve the transport around London and introduced more buses for thousands of visiting spectators

In 2015, he was elected as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Despite numerous allegations pertaining to extramarital affairs and other controversies, he continued to remain a popular politician.

During the 2015-16 Brexit campaign, Boris supported the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign. Upon its victory, he was regarded as the next front-runner for the prime minister post. However, he refused the Conservative candidacy and Theresa May became the prime minister.

He then served as foreign secretary under Theresa May’s government from 2016 to 2018. During his tenure, he courted controversies, thanks to his comments on the five-year prison sentence of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

As foreign secretary, he put forth aggressive policies, stirring rumors that he is not happy with May’s leadership. However, he denied the reports and resigned from the post after attending a meeting to discuss Brexit. He then took up a year-long contract to write articles for ‘Telegraph Media Group.’

Upon Theresa May’s resignation, Johnson confirmed and launched his campaign for the upcoming election. He then won the election against Jeremy Hunt on 22 July 2019 with 66% votes.

As prime minister, Johnson proposed to leave the European Union by 31 October 2019 with or without a deal. He then called for a general election in September under the ‘Fixed-term Parliament Act’ to prevent a no-deal exit.

In September 2019, Phillip Lee, a then-member of the Conservative Party, decided to join the Liberal Democrats after a disagreement with Boris's Brexit policy. Soon after,  21 Conservative MPs were removed from the party lines for supporting proceedings on the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill. This resulted in the Conservative Party losing its standing majority in the House of Commons.

In October 2019, the parliament was dissolved and a re-election was announced on 12 December which restored the Conservative Party to power with a 43.6% majority.

The second term of Boris as the Prime Minister was rife with controversies. Just a few months after him taking office, the COVID pandemic hit the world. However, he was largely criticized for his negligence during the pandemic which resulted in many deaths across the UK. In many instances, Johnson was seen breaking the advisories issued by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). Furthermore, the government was also involved in the infamous Dominic Cummings scandal.

In November 2020, the Conservative Party received a setback after Lee Cain, the Downing Street Director of Communications, resigned from the cabinet. Soon after, Boris ordered Dominic Cummings to vacate Downing Street. In 2021, Cummings, in his testimony, accused Johnson of reckless handling of the COVID situation that eventually led to several deaths. Ironically, Boris had earlier defended Cummings during the Dominic Cummings scandal and had refused to remove him from power despite several pleas and calls to sack him. Cummings also made the allegations that Boris had received “secret donations” for the renovation work in his private residence at 11 Downing Street. Later in December, the Conservative Party was fined £17,800 by the Electoral Commission for not precisely reporting the donations made by Lord Brownlow to the party.

On 11 May 2021, at the State Opening of Parliament, several proposed bills including the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, and the Online Safety Bill, among others were to be enacted as laws.

The course of Boris’s tenure invited several more controversies and scandals such as the Starmer slur controversy, the Partygate scandal, the Owen Paterson controversy, and the Chris Pincher scandal.

In July 2022, no less than 62 ministers, party vice-chairman, trade envoys, and parliamentary private secretaries resigned from the Johnson administration. It was widely speculated that Johnson would lose power in light of the many scandals that occurred during his administration. On July 7, 2022, Johnson resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party. However, he remained Prime Minister until Liz Truss succeeded him on 6 September 2022.

After resigning as the party leader, Johnson returned to being a Member of the Parliament. He participated in Charles III's Accession Council after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. After Liz Truss’ resignation as the leader of the Conservative Party, Johnson gathered support from several MPs for the leadership election. However, he later announced that he would not be running for the leadership.

As the mayor of London, Boris Johnson introduced ‘Boris Bikes,’ a public bicycle hire scheme. Johnson said that he "hoped the bikes would become as common as black cabs and red buses in the capital." The scheme was launched in July 2010, with over 90,000 users registering one million cycle rides in the first ten weeks of operation.

During his tenure as mayor, he also introduced the ‘New Routemaster,’ a hybrid diesel-electric double-decker bus that was similar to the original Routemaster bus but with updated features to meet the requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. Originally referred to as the ‘New Bus for London,’ the first ‘New Routemaster’ bus was launched in February 2012.

In 1997, he was honored at the ‘What the Papers Say’ awards with the ‘Commentator of the Year Award.’

He was named the ‘Pagan Federation of Great Britain National Journalist of the Year’ in 1998.

He was voted Editors’ ‘Editor of the Year’ in 2003.

Boris Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987. The marriage was dissolved in 1993.

He tied the knot for the second time with Marina Wheeler, a barrister, in 1993. This marriage produced two daughters and two sons. The couple separated and filed for divorce in 2018 after 25 years of marriage.

Boris Johnson, who was accused of marital infidelity, has a daughter with Helen MacIntyre, an arts consultant. He has also been linked with Jennifer Arcuri, a former DJ and model.

In 2019, he started living with Carrie Symonds. On 29 February 2020, Symonds and Johnson announced their engagement. They also said that Symonds was expecting a baby in the summer.

Boris Johnson married Carrie Symonds on 29 May 2021, in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral. They welcomed a daughter in December 2021.

See the events in life of Boris Johnson in Chronological Order

How To Cite

People Also Viewed

Also Listed In

© Famous People All Rights Reserved

Cookies on GOV.UK

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.

We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

The Rt Hon Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson was Prime Minister from 24 July 2019 to 6 September 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 13 July 2016 to 9 July 2018.

He was Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from May 2015 to June 2023. Previously he was the MP for Henley from June 2001 to June 2008.

Announcements

Subscriptions.

• 06 September 2022
• 05 September 2022
• Press release
• Correspondence
• 02 September 2022
• 01 September 2022
• 31 August 2022

Is this page useful?

• Yes this page is useful
• No this page is not useful

Help us improve GOV.UK

Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.

To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. Please fill in this survey (opens in a new tab) .

• Advertise with us
• Where to find us
• Jewish News
• Israel at War
• Culture & Lifestyle
• Atlanta Atlanta Jewish Times
• North New Jersey The Jewish Standard
• Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
• United Kingdom The Jewish News
• Australia The Australian Jewish News
• For Publishers Become a Times of Israel Partner

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Ex-London deputy mayor and Jewish Labour stalwart Nicky Gavron dies, aged 82

Mayor of london sadiq khan leads the tributes to his 'dear friend' after gavron's family confirm she passed away peacefully at home on august 30th.

Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, foreign secretary David Lammy, Board of Deputies Vice President Andrew Gilbert, and Progressive Britain executive director Adam Langleben were among those to pay tribute to the political heavyweight as news of her death was made public.

A post on Gavron’s social media account on X confirmed her passing adding: “Nicky’s family is very sad to announce that she has died.

“She passed away peacefully at home on 30th August.”

In 2006, Business Week Magazine cited Gavron as one of the 20 most important people in the world in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions.

The magazine said:”[She aims] to turn London into a model of a sustainable future for all the world’s great cities.”

Her mother was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany as antisemitic persecution mounted in 1936.

In March 2008, she revealed that her mother was chosen to dance before Hitler in the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics, until the authorities discovered that she was Jewish.

In 2012 Gavron spoke of her “complete exasperation” at Livingstone’s decision to depose her as deputy mayor and her concerns about the way he runs his administration.

In 2017 she was among the signatories of a letter from Jewish Labour members expressing “disgust” over Livingstone and his ” history of inflammatory remarks against our community” which called for his expulsion from Labour.

Khan wrote on X:”Devastated to hear the news about my dear friend Nicky Gavron. Her service to our city was immeasurable, as a councillor, Deputy Mayor and Assembly Member.

“To me, she was not just a kind and generous friend, but also a teacher and a mentor. Her commitment to tackling climate change inspired many, and she pioneered many of the policies that have led London to be the world leader it is today.

“I have so many wonderful memories of Nicky over the years. She will be missed terribly, and my thoughts are with her daughters Sarah and Jessica, her wider family and loved ones.”

Foreign Secretary Lammy added:”Very sad to hear my dear friend Nicky Gavron has passed.

“A stalwart of London and Haringey politics, she was a life force at City Hall.

“Passionate about the Climate Emergency, the Built Environment and Urban Planning she improved the lives of so many people.”

Lammy added: “Generous, kind and engaging she will be hugely missed.”

Board of Deputies vice president Andrew Gilbert also posted on X saying:”Very sad at the news that former Deputy Mayor of London and London Assembly member Nicky Gavron has passed away.

“Nicky was a great friend to London Jewish Forum and the London Jewish community.

“During the Ken years she was often the one to whom we turned. From environmental issues to a real vision for London she was one of the key voices.”

While Langleben wrote:”Nicky was a wonderful woman. A very astute politician and hugely respected authority on all things planning. Proud to have worked with her whilst at City Hall and with Jewish Labour of which she was a committed member over many years.

“May her memory be a blessing.”

From the Conservatives Andrew Boff wrote:”I’m devastated to hear of the passing of Nicky Gavron.

“I loved that woman: strong enough to fight for what she believed in and brave enough to change her mind when the evidence demanded it.

“A huge loss to London. I will miss her greatly.”

Gavron had moved from Worcester to London in the 1960s to study the history of art at the Courtauld Institute, before becoming politically active.

In 1986 was elected as a Labour councillor for Archway ward in the London Borough of Haringey.

She was the leader of the London Planning Advisory Committee from 1994 until it was absorbed into the Greater London Authorityand was elected London Assembly member for Enfield and Haringey in the 2000 London Assembly election.

She was deputy mayor of London from May 2000 until June 2003, ]when the mayor, Ken Livingstone, appointed Jenny Jones of the Green Party to succeed her.

Although she was selected as Labour’s mayoral candidate for the 2004 elections, she stepped aside when Livingstone was readmitted to the party.

In the 2004 London Assembly election she was re-elected as a London-wide Labour Assembly member on the party list. Shortly after the election, Livingstone once again appointed her to the position of deputy mayor.

She was supposed to take up a position as acting mayor during Livingstone’s suspension for four weeks from 1 March 2006, but a High Court order froze the suspension, allowing him to remain in office.

Gavron stood for the Barnet and Camden London Assembly seat in the 2008 GLA elections against the Conservative incumbent, Brian Coleman. Although she was unsuccessful in this contest she increased the Labour share of the vote in the constituency and was re-elected to the Assembly on the London-wide list vote.

Gavron ceased to be deputy mayor on 4 May 2008 following Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2008 London mayoral election.

She married publishing tycoon Robert Gavron in 1967 before divorcing in 1987.

Gavron is survived by the couple’s daughters Jessica, a lawyer, and Sarah, a film director.

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

• Nicky Gavron