Boris Johnson

NAME Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. In public he is almost always simply “Boris Johnson,” a first‑name brand built on unruly hair, elaborate metaphors and a carefully cultivated air of endearing chaos. (1)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Boris Johnson is an American‑born British journalist, author and Conservative politician, best known for serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party.  Before reaching Downing Street he was famous as a Telegraph columnist, editor of The Spectator and the flamboyant, gaffe‑prone Mayor of London, later becoming the most recognisable public face of the Vote Leave campaign and of Brexit itself. 

BIRTH  Johnson was born in a clinic on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City on June 19, 1964. At the time his English father, Stanley Johnson, was studying economics at Columbia University, and his mother, painter Charlotte Fawcett (later Charlotte Wahl), was the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and international lawyer. 

At birth, he was notably delivered with such an exceptionally thick, shock of bright blonde hair that other patients in the ward were reportedly invited into the room by nurses to admire the newborn child.(2)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Stanley Johnson went on to careers in the Civil Service, the World Bank and European institutions, as well as writing books on politics and the environment, so Boris grew up in a household where global affairs and public service were normal topics of conversation. (3)

On his mother’s side he inherited both artistic temperament and legal pedigree: Charlotte’s father, Sir James Fawcett, was an influential figure in international law, while Charlotte herself worked as a painter, adding a bohemian streak to the Johnson family background. (2)

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

CHILDHOOD Boris was born with such thick blond hair that other patients in the hospital were invited in to admire it – an anecdote that fits neatly with later decades of follicular fame. (16)

His childhood involved frequent moves for his father’s work, spells of deafness caused by “glue ear” requiring grommet operations, and what family accounts describe as a quiet, studious manner underneath the later clowning. (4)

In 1980 his parents divorced; his mother moved into a flat in Notting Hill, west London, where Boris and his siblings spent much of their time, acquiring a more settled, scruffier West London base after years of movement. (2)

EDUCATION Johnson attended the European School in Brussels, gaining early exposure to continental politics and befriending future wife Marina Wheeler while his father worked in the Belgian capital.  (5)

He then went to Ashdown House preparatory school in East Sussex, followed by Eton College, where he was a King’s Scholar and began to shape the “Boris” persona – clever, slightly anarchic and permanently on the verge of forgetting his homework. (3)

In 1983 Johnson went up to Balliol College, Oxford, to read Classics – ancient literature and philosophy. He failed at his first attempt to become President of the Oxford Union, succeeded on his second, and graduated in 1987 with an upper second‑class degree, having impressed as much with performance as with scholarship. (6)

CAREER RECORD 1987 Through family connections Johnson joined The Times in London as a graduate trainee journalist. He was fired after fabricating a quote about the archaeological discovery of King Edward II’s palace and attributing it to Colin Lucas, his godfather – an early example of colourful invention trumping accuracy. (2)

1988–1994 Johnson moved to The Daily Telegraph, working first on the leader‑writing desk and later as Brussels correspondent. 

1994 He returned to London as assistant editor and chief political columnist at The Daily Telegraph. His column won praise and a Commentator of the Year award at the What the Papers Say awards. 

1997 Johnson was selected as the Conservative Party’s candidate for Clwyd South in north Wales, then a solid Labour seat. He won 9,091 votes – 23% of the total – and lost.

1999–2005 Conrad Black offered Johnson the editorship of The Spectator, a weekly conservative magazine. Under his editorship The Spectator thrived in circulation and influence, though its reputation was tinged by scandals and Johnson’s habit of juggling multiple jobs and complicated private life; he was dismissed in 2005 by new chief executive Andrew Neil. 

2001–2008 Following Michael Heseltine’s retirement, Johnson stood as Conservative candidate for Henley, a safe Tory seat in Oxfordshire, and won with a majority of around 8,500 votes at the 2001 election. As MP he combined Westminster work with editing The Spectator and cultivating a media‑friendly “Boris” image. 

2004 Michael Howard appointed Johnson shadow minister for the arts, later reassigning him to higher education. In November 2004 Howard sacked him from the front bench for failing to tell the truth about newspaper claims regarding his private life.

2008–2016 Johnson was elected Mayor of London in May 2008 and re‑elected in 2012. As mayor he introduced the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme (“Boris bikes”), oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics, promoted various regeneration projects and banned alcohol on much of London’s public transport,

2015–2023 In May 2015 Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He stood down as Mayor in 2016 but continued as MP; he would hold the Uxbridge seat until his resignation from Parliament in June 2023 following the Privileges Committee report. 

2016–2018, Johnson became a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign for the 2016 European Union membership referendum, fronting slogans and appearances that were central to the Brexit narrative. In July 2016 Theresa May appointed him Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; he resigned in July 2018 in protest at her Brexit proposals. 

2019–2022 Johnson succeeded Theresa May as Conservative leader and Prime Minister on July 24, 2019. Initially heading a minority government reliant on the DUP, he called a general election for December 12, 2019, campaigned on “get Brexit done,” and led the Conservatives to their biggest victory since 1987, with 43.6% of the vote and an overall majority of about 80 seats.

2022 On July 7, 2022, after a cascade of ministerial resignations, he announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister.

2023 On June 9, 2023, Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip after a Privileges Committee report concluded that he had “knowingly or recklessly” misled Parliament over lockdown‑breaking gatherings in Downing Street during the COVID‑19 pandemic. 

APPEARANCE Boris Johnson is instantly recognisable: pale, mop‑like blond hair that seems permanently tousled, a slightly rumpled suit and an expression that oscillates between eager schoolboy and baffled professor. (6)

He is stocky rather than athletic, and after his serious bout of COVID‑19 he often appeared heavier and more tired in photographs and television clips, adding a touch of world‑weariness to the previously bounding image. (7)

Official portrait, 2019

FASHION Johnson’s wardrobe is standard Westminster: dark suits, pale shirts, conventionally patterned ties. The difference lies in how he wears them – ties askew, jackets creased and hair defiantly refusing to cooperate – a style that underscores his cultivated “anti‑slick” persona. (6)

As Mayor and Prime Minister he willingly donned hi‑vis jackets, hard hats and cycling gear for photo opportunities, happily presenting himself in costumes that suggested hands‑on energy, even as his career had mostly taken place in newsrooms and committee rooms. (8)

CHARACTER Biographers and colleagues describe Johnson as charismatic, quick‑witted and adept at charming audiences, but also as opportunistic, ruthlessly ambitious and notably relaxed about strict adherence to facts and rules when these conflict with his goals. (6)

SPEAKING VOICE Johnson’s speaking voice is upper‑middle‑class English, punctuated by Latin tags, classical references and flamboyant metaphors, delivered in a slightly rambling style with mumbles, digressions and sudden emphatic phrases. 

He uses self‑deprecating jokes, mock bafflement and theatrical pauses to sidestep difficult questions, which makes him entertaining on television and at the despatch box, though sometimes at the expense of straightforward clarity. (6)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Humour sits at the centre of the Boris persona. He delights in absurd comparisons, verbal slapstick and physical gags – most memorably dangling from a zip‑line waving Union flags during the London Olympics, gamely turning mishap into performance. 

This comic style has served him well on panel shows and in public speeches, but critics suggest that the constant joking can act as a shield, deflecting attention from the seriousness of the issues and from his own responsibility for them. (6)

RELATIONSHIPS Johnson married sculptor Allegra Mostyn‑Owen in 1987; the marriage between two privileged Oxford graduates effectively ended soon afterwards and was dissolved in 1993. (2)

Later in 1993 he married barrister Marina Wheeler, daughter of journalist Sir Charles Wheeler and Dip Singh; they had four children – Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo – and shared roots at the European School in Brussels. Reports of affairs, including a daughter with arts consultant Helen Macintyre and a relationship with American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri, contributed to their separation and divorce proceedings announced in 2018. (6)

By 2019 Johnson was living with political activist Carrie Symonds, who had worked for the Conservative Party since 2009 and on his 2012 mayoral campaign. Their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was born on April 29, 2020, and they married in a small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on May 29, 2021, held under COVID‑era restrictions and with relatively low‑key publicity for such a high‑profile couple. (2)

Symonds and Boris Johnson on Commonwealth Day, March 2020 By 10 Downing Street -

MONEY AND FAME Johnson’s earnings have long come from multiple sources: newspaper columns, books, speeches and, during his years in office, his parliamentary and ministerial salaries. 

His fame has made him a sought‑after figure for paid appearances, but has also invited scrutiny over donations, loans and the funding of his Downing Street flat refurbishment, reinforcing his image as someone for whom money and politics mix in complex ways. (3),

FOOD AND DRINK Johnson’s eating habits lean firmly towards the hearty and comforting rather than the monkish. A much‑quoted food diary has him starting the day with leftover birthday cake from the fridge, working his way through generous helpings of sausages and bangers‑and‑mash, and keeping up his energy with liberal quantities of Diet Coke. (9)

On the campaign trail and in office he has often been photographed consuming the standard props of British political life – pints, mugs of tea and pub‑style snacks – and after his serious brush with COVID‑19 he cheerfully blamed his condition on being “too fat,” announcing bursts of virtue in the form of low‑carb diets, early‑morning runs and a strict embargo on late‑night cheese and chocolate. (10)

During the pandemic, food and drink became politically charged in Downing Street: the Partygate saga centred on gatherings where wine and snacks were enjoyed during lockdown, events which ultimately did his premiership far more harm than any official banquet. (11)

MUSIC AND ARTS With a painter mother and a classical education, Johnson has long been comfortable around the arts; as Mayor of London he presided over a city whose cultural life was thriving and acted as a high‑visibility cheerleader during the 2012 Olympics and other events.

Asked during the 2019 election campaign who his favorite group was, Johnson 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” – a neat mix of punk edge and classic rock respectability. (2)

LITERATURE Johnson studied Classics at Oxford and built a literary persona around ancient texts and classical references, dropping Latin phrases and quoting Homer or Pericles in a way that suggests the essayist as much as the modern politician. (6)

He has written biographies and popular histories, including a well‑known book on Winston Churchill, alongside thousands of newspaper columns; his prose is energetic and often very funny, though his casual attitude to factual precision has attracted robust criticism. (12)

NATURE As Mayor of London Johnson promoted cycling and some urban environmental schemes, arguing for greener transport even as his city struggled with traffic and air‑quality issues. 

As Prime Minister he committed the UK to long‑term net‑zero carbon targets, but his overall environmental record has been judged mixed, with climate pledges occasionally overshadowed by short‑term political and economic choices. (3)

PETS Johnson’s most famous pet is Dilyn, a Jack Russell cross adopted in 2019, who became a regular sight in Downing Street photographs, sometimes charming and sometimes destructive in equal measure. Stories of Dilyn chewing furniture and misbehaving in the garden helped humanise the Johnson‑Symonds household, giving picture editors something lighter to feature amid heavier political headlines. (3)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Johnson is an enthusiastic cyclist and was frequently photographed riding around London, both as Mayor and later as Prime Minister, cultivating an image of a leader on two wheels rather than behind tinted windows. (8), 

In a 2019 TalkRadio interview Johnson revealed a more sedentary hobby: he likes to make models of buses from old wooden wine crates and paint happy passengers on board, a piece of trivia that immediately became part of the Boris Johnson mythology. (13)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Although Johnson’s academic training is in Classics rather than science or mathematics, his premiership was dominated by scientific and statistical concerns, especially during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when infection rates, R‑numbers and vaccine data became daily topics of government briefings. 

His government’s relationship with scientific advisers was sometimes contested – critics accused him of delays and mixed messaging – but the relatively rapid rollout of COVID‑19 vaccines in the UK was widely regarded as one of his administration’s more successful undertakings. (3)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Johnson has described himself as a “One‑Nation Tory,” signalling a preference for a broad, centrist Conservatism that aims to keep the country together rather than appeal only to one faction of the electorate. 

On religion he once compared his Christian faith to Virgin radio reception in the Chilterns – patchy and easily lost – and has more recently denied being a “serious, practicing Christian,” placing himself among those who are culturally Anglican but not notably devout. (2)

PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson became Prime Minister on July 24, 2019, inheriting a country that had spent the previous three years arguing about Brexit with the sort of determined stamina normally reserved for family rows over Monopoly. He replaced Theresa May at a moment when the Conservative government was surviving by the narrowest of margins, propped up by a confidence-and-supply deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. Parliament, meanwhile, had become so deadlocked that watching debates from the public gallery was rather like watching several hundred people trying to reverse a double-decker bus through a revolving door.

Convinced that the only way out was to ask the electorate to settle the matter, Johnson called a snap general election for December 12, 2019. His campaign revolved around a slogan of almost monk-like simplicity: "Get Brexit Done." It proved remarkably effective. Constituencies across northern England and the Midlands—the so-called "Red Wall," which had been Labour territory for so long that many residents probably assumed it came with the geology—switched to the Conservatives in unprecedented numbers.

The result was the Conservatives' biggest election victory since Margaret Thatcher's landslide in 1987. They won 43.6% of the popular vote and secured an overall majority of 80 seats, giving Johnson the parliamentary muscle he had previously lacked. The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement was swiftly ratified, and on January 31, 2020 the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, bringing one chapter of modern British politics to a close after years of drama, delay and enough procedural votes to keep generations of constitutional scholars happily occupied.

If Johnson imagined that Brexit would be the defining challenge of his premiership, history had other ideas. Within weeks, the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, transforming the priorities of governments everywhere. Instead of steering Britain through its post-EU future, much of his remaining time in office was consumed by lockdowns, vaccines, emergency spending and the extraordinary business of trying to manage a once-in-a-century public health crisis while reassuring a nation that had already had quite enough excitement for one decade.

POLITICS Johnson’s politics mix free‑market instincts, social‑liberal rhetoric and a strong Eurosceptic streak. He became one of the leading figures in the Vote Leave campaign, writing and speaking in support of Brexit in a way that was central to the referendum’s outcome. 

He has described himself as more socially liberal than many Conservative colleagues, yet his stance on issues such as immigration and cultural identity also appealed strongly to traditional Conservative voters and disillusioned ex‑Labour supporters. (3)

SCANDAL Scandals have punctuated Johnson’s career: his early dismissal from The Times for inventing a quote; his sacking from the Conservative front bench for misleading Michael Howard about an affair; and his diplomatic gaffes and controversial comments during his time as Foreign Secretary. 

The Partygate affair was the most damaging. The Privileges Committee found that he had “knowingly or recklessly” misled Parliament about lockdown‑breaking gatherings in Downing Street, leading to his resignation as party leader and Prime Minister and eventually to his departure from the Commons. 

MILITARY RECORD Johnson has no personal military service record; his path led from elite schools to journalism and politics without a detour via barracks or battlefields. 

As Prime Minister, however, he played a key role in defence and foreign policy, most notably backing strong military and economic support for Ukraine after Russia’s full‑scale invasion in 2022, casting it as a pivotal struggle for Western values. (3)

Johnson walks on a street of war-hit Kyiv along with Zelenskyy by President Of Ukraine from Україна 

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Johnson’s health became a matter of national concern in March 2020, when he tested positive for COVID‑19 and his condition deteriorated sufficiently for him to be admitted to intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. He later said that hospital staff had prepared to announce his death, and he publicly thanked doctors Nick Price and Nick Hart for saving his life. (7)

After his recovery he spoke about the need to lose weight and improve fitness, linking his illness to longstanding issues with diet and exercise, although his public image remains that of a man more likely to be seen jogging reluctantly than training seriously. (8)

HOMES Johnson’s childhood involved numerous moves between the United States, Brussels and various parts of England as his father’s work changed, producing a peripatetic upbringing with more addresses than most children could easily remember. 

After his parents’ divorce he spent much time at his mother’s flat in Notting Hill, while later in life he lived in London and Oxfordshire – including a farmhouse near Thame while MP for Henley – and then in the official residences associated with the Mayor of London and the Prime Minister. 

TRAVEL Thanks to Stanley Johnson’s European and international roles, Boris grew up travelling widely, experiencing both the USA and continental Europe at close quarters, which gave him a cosmopolitan background that sits interestingly alongside his later Euroscepticism. (3)

As Brussels correspondent, Foreign Secretary and then Prime Minister he spent significant time shuttling between capitals and summits, with travel ranging from EU meetings to G7 gatherings; occasionally his off‑the‑cuff remarks abroad drew as much attention as the official communiqués. (8)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Johnson has been a media fixture since the 1990s, particularly through repeated guest appearances on BBC’s Have I Got News For You, where his combination of rumpled hair and quick humour made him a star turn and helped turn “Boris” into a household name. 

He has been profiled in documentaries, long‑form articles and biographies – such as Sonia Purnell’s Just Boris – and after leaving office he remains a favourite subject for political commentary, podcasts and retrospectives on the Brexit era. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Supporters credit Johnson with several major achievements: making The Spectator profitable and lively; introducing London’s cycle‑hire scheme and fronting a successful 2012 Olympics; securing a decisive election mandate to implement Brexit; and overseeing one of Europe’s quicker COVID‑19 vaccine rollouts. 

Critics point to the scandals, constitutional turbulence and frayed public trust left in his wake, yet few would deny that he has been one of the most consequential – and most quotable – British politicians of the early 21st century, supplying abundant material for trivia, biography and future historians alike.