Boris Johnson

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Boris Johnson
Other names Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
Boris Johnson official portrait (cropped).jpg
Born 19th June 1964
New York City
Occupation journalist, politician
Political party Conservative Party

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19th June 1964 in New York City) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 until 2022. He was appointed as the UK's head of government by Queen Elizabeth II on 24th July 2019 following the resignation of Theresa May. Under Johnson, the party won a general election in December 2019. He was leader of the Conservative Party until 7th July 2022 after a series of scandals resulted in increasing criticism from his own MPs, culminating in a wave of resignations from the government. He resigned on 6th September 2022 and was succeeded by Liz Truss.

Johnson was previously a journalist for the The Times and the Daily Telegraph, but was sacked from the former for making up a quote.[1] His subsequent political career suffered a setback when he was sacked from the Conservatives' Opposition team by leader Michael Howard in 2004 for lying about an affair.[2] He later became Mayor of London, then Foreign Secretary under May before resigning over Brexit.

Johnson has been married three times and had four children with his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Court documents show that he has at least one other child via an affair;[3] he also has two other children with his third wife, Carrie Symonds.

While a student at the University of Oxford Johnson had been a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club.[4] Although Johnson would later express regret over the vandalism and whoremongering he and his friends engaged in, he shocked critics by appointing club members, like Ewen Fergusson, to positions of trust, for which they seemed unqualified. In spite of those earlier criticisms Johnson appointed former club member Harry Mount to the House of Lords appointments commission on September 2, 2022 - mere days before he was scheduled to step down as Prime Minister.

Privileges Committee investigation and Johnson's resignation as an MP

On 21 April 2022, a Parliamentary Privileges Committee was directed to investigate Johnson's behaviour with the primary task of ascertaining if he had lied to Parliament about parties and other excesses in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Johnson was interviewed by the committee, chaired by Harriet Harman, on 22 March 2023. He took an oath that he would tell the truth and insisted that he had not lied to Parliament. He received the committee's report on 9 June 2023 and promptly resigned from his membership of the Commons, triggering a by-election in his constituency.

On the same day, Johnson issued a lengthy statement in which he claimed the Privileges Committee was a "kangaroo court" that had conducted a "witch-hunt" against him, notwithstanding the fact that four of its seven members are Tories. Johnson said he "did not lie" but the committee had "wilfully chosen to ignore the truth". But even in this statement, there is a clear falsehood where Johnson bemoans the potential loss of "the biggest majority in almost half a century". The Tories under Johnson won the 2019 election with a majority of 80 seats and the first election after 1969 (half a century earlier) was in 1970 when the Tories had a majority of 30 seats. In elections since then, the Tories won by 144 in 1983 and by 102 in 1987; Labour under Tony Blair won by a massive 179 in 1987 and 167 in 2001. Therefore, in the half-century since 1969, Johnson's win was the fifth-biggest – 99 short of the actual biggest and 64 short of the biggest Tory win. Further down the statement, Johnson says he secured "the biggest majority for 40 years" and that is also untrue because the four 100-plus victories were after 1979, in which year Mrs Thatcher's majority of 44 was 36 less than Johnson's 80. Despite such falsehoods in his statement, Johnson still said the Committee's report "is riddled with inaccuracies".[5]

Johnson's statement has been widely ridiculed. Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said:

As Johnson exits in disgrace, the British public are sick to the back teeth of this never ending Tory soap opera played out at their expense. After thirteen years of Conservative chaos, enough is enough.

The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper, said: "Good riddance". Caroline Lucas of the Green Party pointed out that:

Everyone knew Johnson was not fit to hold public office before he was even an MP.

She ridiculed Johnson's "baseless accusations" against the committee who had "held him to account for treating us all with contempt (after) he lied about the most serious of things".[6] Elsewhere, former Conservative minister Anna Soubry described Johnson as the "worst PM ever... who destroys everything he touches".[7]

On BBC News, political editor Chris Mason picked up Angela Rayner's "soap opera" comment and said: "2022 was defined, politically, by a soap opera of Conservative squabbling". He described Johnson as someone "with a life-long knack for throwing stones and grabbing attention, (once again) doing just that".[8]

Footnotes

  1. Independent: 'Boris Johnson: The most infamous lies and untruths by the Conservative leadership candidate'. 25th May 2019.
  2. Guardian: 'Boris Johnson sacked by Tories over private life'. 14th November 2004.
  3. 'AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd (2013) EWCA Civ 554 (20 May 2013)'; Independent: 'Boris Johnson: How many children does the Prime Minister have?'. 29th April 2020.
  4. Matthew Weaver, Henry Dyer. Boris Johnson gives peerages job to author of book on his ‘wit and wisdom’, The Guardian, 2022-09-02. Retrieved on 2022-09-07. “Boris Johnson has sparked fresh accusations of cronyism after choosing the author of a book on his 'wit and wisdom' to help oversee the appointment of new peers to the House of Lords.” mirror
  5. Resignation statement in full, BBC News, 9 June 2023.
  6. Andrew Sparrow and colleagues. Johnson resigns as MP, The Guardian, 9/10 June 2023.
  7. BBC Breakfast on Twitter. 10 June 2023.
  8. Chris Mason. Johnson's ghost haunts Rishi Sunak, BBC News, 10 June 2023.