Who is Boris Johnson? Everything you need to know about the new British Prime Minister
A “loner” who once called the President of Turkey a “w***erer” has just been named UK leader. Here’s what you need to know about him.
Boris Johnson has just been named new British Prime Minister after winning the Conservative Party leadership ballot.
His victory speech was a showcase of classic Johnson, mixing self-deprecation with jokes and verbal bluster. He painted a picture of the UK as a “slumbering giant” that needs to cast off self-doubt and unify following Brexit chaos.
So who is the new Prime Minister? Here’s what you need to know about Boris Johnson.
WHO IS HE?
Boris was born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson on June 19, 1964. He is believed to be worth £1.6 million (A$2.84 million), according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The Conservative MP is the former Foreign Secretary and Mayor of London. Known as Bojo in the UK, he has been the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was previously the MP for Henley between 2001 and 2008.
He was born in New York and went to Eton College before reading Classics at Balliol College, Oxford where he became President of the Oxford Union in 1986.
He started working life as a journalist first at The Times and later became The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent. He was the paper’s assistant editor between 1994 and 1999.
Johnson then edited The Spectator from 1999 to 2005. During that time he became the MP for Henley in 2001 and served in the Shadow Cabinet, both under Michael Howard and David Cameron.
In 2008 he was elected Mayor of London and resigned his seat in the Commons after beating Ken Livingstone. He was re-elected to the post in 2012. Johnson became the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2015 general election and resigned as mayor the following year.
In 2016 he played a prominent role in the Vote Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum after switching sides from Remain at the 11th hour.
After the successful campaign which saw the UK vote to leave the EU, he intended to run for leadership but was scuppered by his rival Michael Gove. He was later appointed by the Prime Minister Theresa May as the Foreign Secretary.
Johnson resigned from the post two years later in criticism of May’s approach to Brexit and her Chequers deal, famously saying they should “chuck Chequers.” He has since become a rallying figure for those who want a hard-Brexit, saying the UK is not optimistic enough about life outside the EU.
LOVE LIFE
In 1987 Boris wed Allegra Mostyn-Owen, the daughter of the art historian William Mostyn-Owen and the Italian writer Gaia Servadio. The marriage was dissolved in 1993.
He later married barrister Marina Wheeler in 1993 and the couple went on to have four children together. The Sun exclusively revealed how their marriage was on the brink of collapse after Marina accused her husband of cheating on her.
On September 7, 2018, it was confirmed that the pair would divorce after 25 years of marriage.
Marina had thrown him out twice before — first in 2004 over his four-year affair with writer Petronella Wyatt, and then again in 2010 when he was suspected of having a love child with art consultant Helen Macintyre.
He is now in a relationship with Carrie Symonds — the former Conservatives’ director of communications.
The 31-year-old PR expert turned environmental campaigner has been linked to Boris since the split with his wife became public.
They live together in his South London home — and she could move into Number 10 Downing Street with him if he becomes PM.
He may wed for a third time in office. He would be the first British PM to do so.
WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY ABOUT HIM?
BoJo’s former mistress Petronella Wyatt has claimed he is a “loner” who has once moaned that “men should not be confined to one woman”.
She has previously written about how the larger-than-life ladies’ man is “inordinately proud of his Turkish ancestry” and claimed his “views on matters such as monogamy are decidedly Eastern”.
During their illicit affair, the author claims the MP said: “I find it genuinely unreasonable that men should be confined to one woman.”
She said: “Like many loners, he has a compensating need to be liked.”
Petronella added that Boris will do “anything to avoid an argument” which often results in him lying to his loved ones.
In June 2019 cops were called to the home of his girlfriend Carrie Symonds after neighbours recorded the couple having a row. Carrie could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
In the recording, Johnson can allegedly be heard refusing to leave the flat and telling his girlfriend to “get off my f***ing laptop” before a loud crash. Police were reassured all was well and the incident sparked a debate in the UK about private versus public lives of politicians.
Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds were pictured the next day in a garden leading to claims the picture was staged.
FAMILY AND PRIVATE LIFE
Boris has two younger brothers and a younger sister. Sister Rachel Johnson is a journalist and author who starred in Celebrity Big Brother in January 2018. Brother Leo is a partner specialising in sustainability at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Jo Johnson is Conservative MP for Orpington.
They are the children of former MEP and environmental campaigner Stanley Johnson who starred in I’m A Celebrity in 2017 — and the painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl.
Mr Johnson recently revealed he likes to make models of buses and paints in his spare time as a way to unwind from the stressful world of politics in an interview that went viral.
He told talkRADIO’s Ross Kempsell: “I like to paint. I make things. I make models.
“I make models of buses. I get old wooden crates and I paint them, and they have to contain two wine bottles.
“And it will have a dividing thing. And I turn it into a bus and I put passengers … you really want to know this?
FAMOUS GAFFES
Mr Johnson is renowned for his colourful and offensive comments — here’s a look back at some of his most controversial quotes.
On burkas — Writing in The Daily Telegraph Boris said the coverall garment was “oppressive” — but added that Denmark had got it wrong to bring in a ban.
Mr Johnson wrote: “If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree.
“I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.”
And he added that if “a female student turned up at school or a university lecture looking like a bank robber” he would ask her to remove it to speak to her.
On women in the Labour Party — In 1996, writing for The Telegraph, Johnson went to a Labour Party conference and wrote a piece reviewing the “hot totty” — female labour MPs on the “Tottymeter.”
In his opening line he wrote: “It is hard to know quite how to put this.
“What follows is neither politically correct nor scientific,” but he concludes that women are “naturally fickle” and thus turning to labour with the polls.
On gay men in 1998 — Writing again in his now infamous Telegraph column, Johnson described gay men as “tank-topped bumboys.”
In a separate column in the same year he wrote that the BBC’s move to increase equality for gay people “must be a spoof.”
On gay marriage in 2002 — Johnson compared same-sex marriage to bestiality in his 2002 book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen.
He wrote: “If gay marriage was OK — and I was uncertain on the issue — then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”
On UKIP in 2004 — “I can hardly condemn UKIP as a bunch of boss-eyed, foam-flecked euro hysterics, when I have been sometimes not far short of boss-eyed, foam-flecked hysteria myself.”
On voting for the Conservative party in 2005 — “Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.”
On Papua New Guinea and leadership elections in 2006 — “For ten years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.”
On Hillary Clinton in 2007 — “She’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.”
He claimed she carried out her role as First Lady like “Lady Macbeth, stamping her heel, bawling out subordinates and frisbeeing ashtrays at her erring husband.”
On Tony Blair visiting Africa in 2010 — “What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England.
“It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies.”
On Malaysian women in 2013 — Speaking to the Malaysian Prime Minister at the time, Johnson suggested a 68 per cent rise in Malaysian women attending university was so that they could “find husbands”.
On Vladimir Putin in 2015 — “Despite looking a bit like Dobby the House Elf, he is a ruthless and manipulative tyrant,”
On the EU in 2016 — “Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.”
On President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in 2016 — “There was a young fellow from Ankara, ho was a terrific w**kerer, till he sowed his wild oats, with the help of a goat, but he didn’t even stop to thankera.”
On Donald Trump in 2016 — “I would invite him to come and see the whole of London … except that I wouldn’t want to expose Londoners to any risk of meeting Donald Trump.
“The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”
Originally published as Who is Boris Johnson? Everything you need to know about the new British Prime Minister