Boris Johnson

 EARLY LIFE

Boris Johnson was born in a clinic in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City on June 9, 1964. His English father, Stanley Johnson, was studying economics at Columbia University,

Boris' mother is the painter Charlotte Fawcett (later Wahl) who is the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister.

Boris was born with such thick, blonde hair that other patients in the hospital were invited in to admire it.

He has three younger siblings. Rachel, Jo and Leo. 

Boris and his parents returned to England shortly after his father because his mother needed to take her Oxford finals. 

As a child, Boris suffered from deafness, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears. He was reportedly quiet and studious.

Boris was educated at the European School in Brussels, Ashdown House a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex and then at Eton College. At Eton, he was a King's Scholar.

His parents divorced in 1980 and Boris' mother moved into a flat in Notting Hill, west London, where she was joined by her children for much of their time.

Boris read Classics, ancient literature and classical philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford.  

While a student there, he was elected President of the Oxford Union at his second attempt. His presidency term was not particularly distinguished or memorable.

Johnson was awarded an upper second-class degree in 1987.

EARLY CAREER

Through family connections, Johnson began work as a graduate trainee at The London Times in late 1987. Johnson apparently concocted a quote about the archaeological discovery of King Edward II's palace for the newspaper, falsely attributing it to the historian Colin Lucas, his godfather. Needless to say, Boris was fired for this blunder.

Johnson then secured employment on the leader-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having met its editor, Max Hastings, during his Oxford University Union presidency. In 1994 he was promoted to the position of assistant editor and chief political columnist. His column received praise for being distinctively written, and earned him a Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards.

In July 1999, Conrad Black offered Johnson the editorship of The Spectator, a weekly British conservative magazine. The Spectator thrived under his editorship, adding to his reputation as a highly successful journalist. He remained in that position until the magazine's new chief executive, Andrew Neil, dismissed him in 2005.

POLITICAL CAREER

 In 1997 Johnson was selected as the Conservative party's candidate for Clwyd South in north Wales, at that time a Labour Party safe seat. He attained 9,091 votes (23%) in the 1997 general election, losing to the Labour candidate

Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand as Conservative candidate for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire. He won with a majority of 8,500 votes at the 2001 election.

Michael Howard appointed Johnson shadow minister for the arts in May 2004. He was sacked six months later for failing to tell the truth to Mr Howard about newspaper claims regarding his private life.

Johnson with students As Shadow Minister for Higher Education By mattbuck 

Johnson was installed as the Mayor of London in 2008 and re-elected as Mayor four years later. As mayor, he introduced a bicycle sharing system called Barclays Cycle Hire, oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics and banned the use of alcohol on public transportation.

In 2015, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; he stepped down as mayor the following year.

Johnson became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum.

When Theresa May became the new UK Prime Minister, she chose Johnson as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in July 2016. Johnson left May's cabinet in July 2018 after her Brexit agreements failed.

PRIME MINISTER 

Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party on July 24, 2019 and became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At the time the Conservative Party was a minority government and relied on the Northern Irish DUP Party to help them push legislation through parliament.

Portrait photograph of a 55-year-old Johnson By Ben Shread / Cabinet Office

Johnson called a general election for December 12, 2019. He wanted the Conservatives to win a majority in parliament to pass a Brexit bill. 

He ran on a promise to “get Brexit done,” a platform that seemed to win over areas that had traditionally voted for Labour. 

Johnson led the Conservative Party to its biggest parliamentary victory since 1987, winning 43.6% of the vote – the largest share of any party since 1979 and an overall majority of about 80 seats.

Parliament ratified Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement, and the UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020.

The global coronavirus pandemic emerged as a serious crisis within the country in March 2020. In late March, it was announced that Johnson himself had tested positive for the disease and he spent several days in St Thomas Hospital's intensive care unit. Johnson returned to work in late April.

Boris Johnson announced his intention to resign as prime minister on July 7, 2022. It followed days of political drama and calls for him to quit from within his Conservative Party.  The tipping point for Johnson's resignation came after a number of high-profile ministers resigned from his government in protest of his leadership. These included Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary.

Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip on June 9, 2023, after receiving a confidential report from the Privileges Committee that found he had "knowingly or recklessly" misled Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BELIEFS 

Ideologically, Johnson has described himself as a "One-Nation Tory".

He is more socially liberal than many of his Conservative colleagues. Johnson once declared that "no sane person is homophobic."

Johnson's biographer Andrew Gimson said that while "in economic and social matters, [Johnson] is a genuine liberal", he retains a "Tory element" to his personality through his "love of existing institutions, and a recognition of the inevitability of hierarchy".

Johnson once compared his Christian faith to the radio reception of Virgin in the Chilterns (ie patchy, and easily lost). But more recently he’s denied being a “serious, practicing Christian”.

RELATIONSHIPS 

Boris Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987. The marriage lasted less than a year and was dissolved in 1993.

Johnson tied the knot for the second time with Marina Wheeler, a barrister, in 1993. Wheeler is the daughter of journalist and broadcaster Sir Charles Wheeler and his Sikh Indian wife, Dip Singh and her family has known the Johnson family for many years. Marina Wheeler was at the European School in Brussels at the same time as Boris Johnson.

This marriage produced two sons - Theodore Apollo (born 1999) and Milo Arthur (born 1995) - and two daughters - Lara Lettice (born 1993) and Cassia Peaches (born 1997

Johnson was accused of marital infidelity, and had a daughter with Helen MacIntyre, an arts consultant. He was also accused of having an affair with American technology entrepreneur, and model Jennifer Arcuri. 

Johnson and Wheeler separated and filed for divorce in 2018 after 25 years of marriage.

By 2019, Johnson was living with political activist Carrie Symonds, who had worked for the Conservative party since 2009 and been part of Johnson's 2012 campaign team to be re-elected as Mayor. 

Symonds in 2020 By 10 Downing Street 

Johnson and  Carrie Symonds became engaged in late 2019. Their first son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was born on April 29, 2020. Wilfred was born at a London hospital, and he was the sixth child born to a serving British Prime Minister, and the first child born to a Prime Minister while in office since David Cameron's daughter was born in 2010.  Wilfred's middle name, Lawrie, is a tribute to Carrie Symonds' grandfather, while his second middle name, Nicholas, is a nod to the two doctors, Nick Price and Nick Hart, who treated Boris Johnson when he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

Boris Johnson married Carrie Symonds in a small, secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on May 29, 2021. The couple's decision to have a secret wedding was likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, there were restrictions on the size of gatherings, and the couple may have wanted to avoid the media attention that would have come with a larger wedding.

                                                    HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

Asked who his favorite group is during the 2019 election campaign, he replied: “Look this is either The Clash or The Rolling Stones, and mainly I listen to The Rolling Stones nowadays, so you can make of that what you will.”

Boris Johnson revealed in 2019 in a Talk Radio interview that in his spare time he likes to relax by making models of buses and painting happy passengers on board.