Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson Hon FRIBA (/ˈfɛfəl/;[6] born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer, and former journalist who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party since July 2019. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008. He also served as mayor of London from 2008 to 2016 and foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018. Johnson identifies as a one-nation conservative.
Born in New York City to upper-middle class British parents, Johnson was educated at the European School, Brussels I; Ashdown House; and Eton College. He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. He began his career in journalism at The Times but was dismissed for falsifying a quotation. He later became The Daily Telegraph's Brussels correspondent, and his articles exerted a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment on the British right. He was an assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph from 1994 to 1999, and edited The Spectator from 1999 to 2005. He was elected MP for Henley in 2001, and served as a Junior Shadow Minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron. He largely adhered to the Conservatives' party line but adopted a socially liberal stance on issues such as LGBT rights in parliamentary votes. Resigning as an MP, in 2008 he was elected Mayor of London, and was re-elected in 2012. During his mayoralty, he banned alcohol consumption on much of London's public transport, oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics, and introduced the New Routemaster buses, cycle hire scheme, and Thames cable car.
In 2015, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, stepping down as mayor the following year. In 2016, he became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit. He then served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Theresa May's premiership – a post from which he resigned in criticism of May's approach to Brexit and the Chequers Agreement two years later. After May resigned in 2019, he was elected Conservative leader and appointed prime minister. In August 2019, Johnson controversially advised Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue Parliament from 10 September to 14 October; on 24 September this action was unanimously ruled to be unlawful and of no effect by the Supreme Court. In September 2019, Johnson suspended 21 of his own Conservative MPs; 10 of the 21 suspended had the whip restored in October.
Johnson is a controversial figure in British politics and journalism. Supporters have praised him as an entertaining, humorous, and popular figure, with an appeal stretching beyond traditional Conservative voters. He has been accused of dishonesty, elitism, and cronyism, and of using racist, sexist, and homophobic language. Johnson is the subject of several biographies and a number of fictionalised portrayals.
Early life
Childhood: 1964–1977
Johnson was born to upper-middle class British parents on 19 June 1964 in Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City.[7][8] His father, Stanley Johnson, was then studying economics at Columbia University.[9] Johnson's mother is Charlotte Fawcett,[10] daughter of Sir James Fawcett and an artist from a family of liberal intellectuals. Johnson's parents married in 1963, before moving to the US.[11]
Johnson's parents lived opposite the Chelsea Hotel,[12] although in September 1964 they returned to Britain so that Charlotte could study at the University of Oxford.[13] She lived with her son in Summertown, Oxford, and gave birth to a daughter, Rachel, in 1965.[14] In July 1965, the family moved to Crouch End in North London;[15] in February 1966, they relocated to Washington, D.C., where Stanley had gained employment with the World Bank.[16] A third child, Leo, was born in September 1967.[17] Stanley then gained employment with a policy panel on population control, in June moving the family to Norwalk, Connecticut
In 1969, the family settled into Stanley's family farm, West Nethercote Farm, near Winsford in Exmoor in the west of England.[19] There, Johnson gained his first experiences with fox hunting.[20] Stanley was regularly absent from Nethercote, leaving Johnson to be raised largely by his mother and au pairs.[21] As a child, Johnson was quiet and studious,[15] although he suffered from deafness, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears.[22] He and his siblings were encouraged to engage in highbrow activities from a young age,[23] with high achievement being greatly valued; Johnson's earliest recorded ambition was to be "world king".[24] Having few or no friends other than their siblings, the children became very close.[25]
In late 1969, the family relocated to Maida Vale, West London, where Stanley began post-doctoral research at the London School of Economics.[26] In 1970, Charlotte and the children briefly returned to Nethercote, where Johnson was schooled at the Winsford Village School, before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill,[27] there being educated at Primrose Hill Primary School.[28] In late 1971, another son, Joseph, was born to the family.[29]
After Stanley secured employment at the European Commission, he moved his family in April 1973 to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School, Brussels I and learned to speak French.[30][31] Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with clinical depression, and Johnson and his siblings were sent to Ashdown House preparatory boarding school in East Sussex in 1975.[32] There he developed a love of rugby and excelled at Ancient Greek and Latin;[33] he was appalled at the teachers' use of corporal punishment.[34] Meanwhile, Stanley's and Charlotte's relationship broke down in December 1978 and they divorced in 1980.[35] Charlotte moved into a flat in Notting Hill, where her children spent much of their time with her.[36]
Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987
Johnson was awarded a King's Scholarship to study at Eton College, the independent boarding school in Eton, Berkshire.[38] Arriving in the autumn term of 1977,[39] Johnson began using the given name Boris rather than Alex, and developed "the eccentric English persona" for which he would become known.[40] He abandoned his mother's Catholicism and became an Anglican, joining the Church of England.[41] Although school reports complained about his idleness, complacency, and lateness,[42] he was popular and well known at Eton.[40] His friends were largely from the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes; his best friends were Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer, both of whom accompanied him to the University of Oxford and remained friends into adulthood.[43] Johnson excelled in English and Classics, winning prizes in both,[44] and became secretary of the school debating society,[45] and editor of the school newspaper, The Eton College Chronicle.[46] In late 1981, he was admitted to the Eton Society.[47] Upon finishing his time at Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an elite independent boarding school
Johnson won a scholarship to read Literae Humaniores, a four-year course based on the study of Classics, at Balliol College, Oxford.[51] Starting at the university in late 1983,[52] he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who were to dominate British politics and media in the second decade of the 21st century; among them David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles went on to become senior Conservative Party MPs.[53] At university he played rugby for Balliol[54] and associated primarily with Old Etonians, joining the Old Etonian-dominated Bullingdon Club, an upper-class drinking society known for vandalism.[55][56] He entered into a relationship with the upper-middle class Allegra Mostyn-Owen, and they became engaged while at university.[57]
Johnson was popular and well known at Oxford.[58] Alongside Guppy he co-edited the university's satirical magazine Tributary.[59] In 1984, Johnson was elected secretary of the Oxford Union,[60] before campaigning for the position of Union president, losing the election to Neil Sherlock.[61] In 1986, Johnson ran for president again, aided by undergraduate Frank Luntz; his campaign focused on reaching out from his established upper-class support base by emphasising his persona and playing down his Conservative connections.[62] Hoping to court their vote, Johnson associated with university groups affiliated with the centrist Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Liberal Party.[63] Luntz later alleged that Johnson portrayed himself as an SDP supporter during the campaign, although Johnson says he has no recollection of this.[63][64] Johnson won the election and was appointed president,[65] although his presidency was not seen as particularly distinguished or memorable,[66] and questions were raised regarding his competence and seriousness.[67] Having specialised in the study of ancient literature and classical philosophy, Johnson graduated from Balliol College with an upper second-class degree,[68][69] but was deeply unhappy that he did not receive a first.[70]
Early career
The Times and The Daily Telegraph: 1987–1994
Johnson and Mostyn-Owen married in West Felton, Shropshire, in September 1987; Allegra e Boris[72] – a duet for violin and viola – was specially commissioned for the wedding from Hans Werner Henze.[73] After a honeymoon in Egypt they settled in West Kensington, West London.[74] Johnson secured work for a management consultancy company, L.E.K. Consulting, but resigned after a week.[75] Through family connections, in late 1987 he began work as a graduate trainee at The Times.[76] Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article on the archaeological discovery of Edward II's palace for the newspaper. Johnson invented a quote for the article that he falsely claimed came from the historian Colin Lucas, his own godfather. After The Times' editor Charles Wilson learned of the deception, Johnson was dismissed.[77]
Johnson secured employment on the leader-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having known its editor, Max Hastings, through his Oxford University Union presidency.[78] His articles were designed to appeal to the newspaper's conservative, middle-class, middle-aged "Middle England" readership,[79] and were known for their distinctive literary style, replete with old-fashioned words and phrases, and for regularly referring to the readership as "my friends".[80] In early 1989, Johnson was appointed to the newspaper's Brussels bureau to report on the European Commission,[81] remaining in the post until 1994.[82] A strong critic of Commission President Jacques Delors, he established himself as one of the city's few Eurosceptic journalists.[83] Many of his fellow journalists there were critical of his articles, opining that they often contained lies designed to discredit the Commission;[84] Chris Patten later stated that, at that time, Johnson was "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".[82]
Johnson biographer Andrew Gimson believed that these articles made Johnson "one of [Euroscepticism's] most famous exponents".[71] According to later biographer Sonia Purnell – who was Johnson's Brussels deputy[82] – he helped make Euroscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas previously it was associated with the British Left.[85] Johnson's articles established him as the favourite journalist of the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,[86] although Thatcher's successor, John Major, was annoyed by Johnson and spent much time attempting to refute his claims.[87] Johnson's articles exacerbated tensions between the Conservative Party's Eurosceptic and Europhile factions, tensions which were widely viewed as contributing to the party's defeat in the 1997 general election. As a result, Johnson earned the mistrust of many party members.[88] His writings were also a key influence on the emergence of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the early 1990s.[85] His proprietor at the Telegraph, Conrad Black, said Johnson "was such an effective correspondent for us in Brussels that he greatly influenced British opinion on this country’s relations with Europe."[89]
In February 1990, Johnson's wife left him; after several attempts at reconciliation, they divorced in April 1993.[90] He entered a relationship with a childhood friend, Marina Wheeler, who had moved to Brussels in 1990.[91] In May 1993, they married at Horsham, Sussex,[92] and Wheeler gave birth to a daughter soon after.[93] Johnson and his new wife settled in Islington, North London,[94] an area known for its left-liberal intelligentsia. Under the influence of this milieu and his wife, Johnson moved in a more liberal direction on issues like climate change, LGBT rights, and race relations.[95] The couple had three further children in Islington, each given the joint surname of Johnson-Wheeler,[96] who were sent to the local Canonbury Primary School and then private secondary schools.[97] Devoting much time to his children, Johnson wrote a book of verse, Perils of the Pushy Parents – A Cautionary Tale, which was published to largely poor reviews.[98]
Political columnist: 1994–1999
Back in London, Hastings turned down Johnson's request to become a war reporter,[99] instead promoting him to the position of assistant editor and chief political columnist.[100] Johnson's column received praise for being ideologically eclectic and distinctively written, and earned him a Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards.[101] He was also accused of bigotry; in one column he used the words "piccannies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, and championed European colonialism in Uganda,[102][103][104] while in another he referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys
Contemplating a political career, in 1993 Johnson outlined his desire to stand as a Conservative candidate to be a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Although Andrew Mitchell convinced Major not to veto Johnson's candidacy, Johnson found it impossible to find a constituency.[106] He subsequently turned his attention to obtaining a seat in the UK House of Commons. After being rejected as Conservative candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras, he was selected as the party's candidate for Clwyd South in North Wales, a Labour Party safe seat. Spending six weeks campaigning, he attained 9,091 votes (23%) in the 1997 general election, losing to the Labour candidate.[107]
Scandal erupted in June 1995 when a recording of a 1990 telephone conversation between Johnson and his friend Darius Guppy was made public.[108] In the conversation, Guppy said that his criminal activities were being investigated by News of the World journalist Stuart Collier, and he asked Johnson to provide him with Collier's private address, seeking to have the latter beaten to the extent of "a couple of black eyes and a cracked rib or something like that". Johnson agreed to supply the information although he expressed concern that he would be associated with the attack.[108] When the phone conversation was published in 1995, Johnson stated that he did not ultimately give the information to Guppy; Hastings reprimanded Johnson but did not dismiss him.[108]
Johnson was given a regular column in The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph's sister publication; it attracted mixed reviews and was often thought rushed.[109] In 1999, he was also given a column on new cars in the magazine GQ.[110] His behaviour regularly annoyed his editors; those at GQ were frustrated by the large number of parking fines that Johnson acquired while testing cars for them,[105] while he was consistently late in providing his columns for The Telegraph and The Spectator, forcing many staff to stay late to accommodate him; they related that if they went ahead and published without his work included, he would get angry and shout at them with expletives.[111]
Johnson's appearance on an April 1998 episode of Have I Got News for You brought him to a far wider audience; emphasising a bumbling upper-class persona, he was viewed as entertaining and invited back on to later episodes, including as a guest presenter.[112] After these, he came to be recognised on the street by the public, and was invited to appear on other television shows, such as Top Gear, Parkinson, Breakfast with Frost, and Question Time.[113]
The Spectator and MP for Henley: 1999–2008
In July 1999, Conrad Black – proprietor of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator – offered Johnson the editorship of the latter on the condition he abandon his parliamentary aspirations; Johnson agreed.[114] While retaining The Spectator's traditional right-wing bent, Johnson welcomed contributions from leftist writers and cartoonists.[115] Under Johnson's editorship, the magazine's circulation grew by 10% to 62,000 and it began to turn a profit.[116] His editorship also drew criticism; some opined that under him The Spectator avoided serious issues,[117] while colleagues became annoyed that he was regularly absent from the office, meetings, and events.[118] He gained a reputation as a poor political pundit as a result of incorrect political predictions made in the magazine,[117] and was strongly criticised – including by his father-in-law Charles Wheeler – for allowing Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos to publish racist and antisemitic language in the magazine.[119][120]
Journalist Charlotte Edwardes alleged in 2019 that Johnson had squeezed her thigh at a private lunch in the offices of the Spectator in 1999 and that another woman had told her that he had done the same to her. A Downing Street spokesman denied the allegation.[121]
In 2004, Johnson controversially published an editorial in The Spectator suggesting that Liverpudlians were "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough disaster and partly blaming the tragedy on "drunken fans".[122] In an appendix added to a later edition of his 2005 book about the Roman empire, The Dream of Rome, Johnson was criticised for arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the west.[123]
Becoming an MP
Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand as Conservative candidate for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire.[125] The local Conservative branch was split over Johnson's candidacy – some thought him amusing and charming; others disliked his flippant attitude and lack of knowledge about the local area – although they did select him.[126] Boosted by his television fame, Johnson stood as the Conservative candidate for the constituency in the 2001 general election, winning with a majority of 8,500 votes.[127] Alongside his Islington home, Johnson bought a farmhouse outside Thame in his new constituency.[128] He regularly attended Henley social events and occasionally wrote for the Henley Standard.[129] His constituency surgeries proved popular, and he joined local campaigns to stop the closure of Townlands Hospital and the local air ambulance.[130]
In Parliament, Johnson was appointed to a standing committee assessing the Proceeds of Crime Bill, although he missed many of its meetings.[131] Despite his credentials as a public speaker, his speeches in the House of Commons were widely deemed lacklustre; Johnson later called them "crap".[132] In his first four years as MP he attended just over half of the Commons votes; in his second term this declined to 45%.[133] He usually supported the Conservative party line although he rebelled against it five times in this period, reflecting a more socially liberal attitude than many colleagues; he voted to repeal Section 28 and supported the Gender Recognition Act 2004.[134] Although initially stating he would not, he voted in support of the government's plans to join the US in the 2003 invasion of Iraq,[128] and in April 2003 visited occupied Baghdad.[135] In August 2004, he backed unsuccessful impeachment procedures against Prime Minister Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" regarding the war,[136] and in December 2006 described the invasion as "a colossal mistake and misadventure".[137]
Although labelling Johnson "ineffably duplicitous" for breaking his promise not to become an MP, Black decided not to dismiss him because he "helped promote the magazine and raise its circulation".[138] Johnson remained editor of The Spectator, also writing columns for The Daily Telegraph and GQ, and making television appearances.[139] His 2001 book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen: Jottings on the Stump, recounted that year's election campaign,[140] while 2003's Lend Me Your Ears collected together previously published columns and articles.[141] In 2004, his first novel was published: Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors revolved around the life of a Conservative MP and contained various autobiographical elements.[142] Responding to critics who argued that he was juggling too many jobs, he cited Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli as exemplars who combined their political and literary careers.[143] To manage the stress he took up jogging and cycling,[144] and became so well known for the latter that Gimson suggested that he was "perhaps the most famous cyclist in Britain".[145]
Following William Hague's resignation as Conservative leader, Johnson backed Kenneth Clarke, regarding Clarke as the only candidate capable of winning a general election. However, Iain Duncan Smith was elected.[146] Johnson had a strained relationship with Duncan Smith, and The Spectator became critical of the latter's party leadership.[147] Duncan Smith was removed from his position in November 2003 and replaced by Michael Howard; Howard deemed Johnson to be the most popular Conservative politician with the electorate and appointed him vice-chairman of the party, responsible for overseeing its electoral campaign.[148] In his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle of May 2004, Howard appointed Johnson to the position of shadow arts minister.[149] In October, Howard ordered Johnson to publicly apologise in Liverpool for publishing a Spectator article – anonymously written by Simon Heffer – which claimed that the crowds at the Hillsborough disaster had contributed towards the incident and that Liverpudlians had a predilection for reliance on the welfare state.[150][151]
In November 2004, tabloids revealed that since 2000 Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two terminated pregnancies. Johnson initially called the claims "piffle".[152] After the allegations were proven, Howard asked Johnson to resign as vice-chairman and shadow arts minister for publicly lying; when Johnson refused, Howard dismissed him from those positions.[153][154] The scandal was satirised by The Spectator's theatre critics Toby Young and Lloyd Evans in a play, Who's the Daddy?, performed at Islington's King's Head Theatre in July 2005.[155]
Second term
In the 2005 general election, Johnson was re-elected MP for Henley, increasing his majority to 12,793.[156] Labour won the election and Howard stood down as Conservative leader; Johnson backed David Cameron as his successor.[157] After Cameron was elected, he appointed Johnson as the shadow higher education minister, acknowledging his popularity among students.[158] Interested in streamlining university funding,[159] Johnson supported Labour's proposed top-up fees.[160] In September 2006, his image was used in pro-Conservative "Boris needs you" and "I Love Boris" material during university Freshers' Week.[161] In 2006, Johnson campaigned to become the Rector of the University of Edinburgh, but his support for top-up fees damaged his campaign and he came third.[162][163]
In April 2006, the News of the World alleged that Johnson was having an affair with the journalist Anna Fazackerley; the pair refused to comment, and shortly afterwards Johnson began employing Fazackerley.[164][165] That month, he attracted further public attention for rugby-tackling former footballer Maurizio Gaudino in a charity football match.[166] In September 2006, Papua New Guinea's High Commission protested after he compared the Conservatives' frequently changing leadership to cannibalism in Papua New Guinea.[167]
In 2005, The Spectator's new chief executive, Andrew Neil, dismissed Johnson as editor.[168] To make up for this financial loss, Johnson negotiated with The Daily Telegraph to raise his annual fee from £200,000 to £250,000, averaging at £5,000 per column, each of which took up around an hour and a half of his time.[169][170] He presented a popular history television show, The Dream of Rome, for production company Tiger Aspect; the show was broadcast in January 2006 and a book followed in February.[171] Through his own production company, he produced a sequel, After Rome, focusing on early Islamic history.[172] As a result of his various activities, in 2007 he earned £540,000, making him the UK's third-highest-earning MP that year.[173]
Mayor of London
Mayoral election: 2007–2008
In March 2007, Johnson proposed standing as Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in the 2008 mayoral election.[174] Most Conservatives did not take him seriously, favouring Nick Boles.[175] However, after Boles withdrew, Johnson gained Cameron's support,[176] and was endorsed by the London Evening Standard.[29] In July, he announced his candidacy,[177][178] and in September was selected Conservative candidate after gaining 79% of the vote in a public London-wide primary.[179][180] In the selection contest, he beat Victoria Borwick, Andrew Boff and Warwick Lightfoot.
The Conservatives hired election strategist Lynton Crosby to run Johnson's mayoral campaign,[181] which was primarily funded by sympathisers in London's financial sector.[182] Johnson's campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the AEC Routemaster.[183] During his campaign, Johnson also advocated the law being flexible for "[cases] when cannabis is being used to alleviate severe and chronic pain".[184] Targeting the Conservative-leaning suburbs of outer London, it capitalised on perceptions that the Labour Mayoralty had neglected them in favour of inner London.[185] His campaign emphasised his popularity, even among those who opposed his policies,[186] with opponents complaining that a common attitude among voters was: "I'm voting for Boris because he is a laugh".[183]
Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone took Johnson seriously, referring to him as "the most formidable opponent I will face in my political career."[187] Livingstone's campaign portrayed Johnson as an out-of-touch toff and bigot, citing racist and homophobic language used in his column; Johnson responded that these quotes had been taken out of context and were meant as satire.[188] Johnson insisted he was not a bigot, declaring: "I'm absolutely 100% anti-racist; I despise and loathe racism".[189] Publicly emphasising his Turkish ancestry,[190] he went contrary to Conservative policy by endorsing an earned amnesty for illegal immigrants.[191] The allegations were exacerbated when the fascist British National Party (BNP) urged supporters to give their second preference votes to Johnson; he responded by "utterly and unreservedly" condemning the BNP.[192][193] Further controversy arose when Johnson admitted having used cannabis and cocaine as a student.[194]
The May 2008 election saw a turnout of approximately 45%, with Johnson receiving 43% and Livingstone 37% of first-preference votes; when second-preference votes were added, Johnson proved victorious with 53% to Livingstone's 47%.[195][196] Johnson benefited from a large voter turnout in Conservative strongholds like Bexley and Bromley.[197] Having secured the largest personal electoral mandate in the UK,[198] he praised Livingstone as a "very considerable public servant" and added that he hoped to "discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London".[196] He announced his resignation as MP for Henley,[199][200] generating some anger from Henley party members and constituents who felt abandoned.[201]
First term: 2008–2012
Settling into the City Hall mayoral office,[202] Johnson's first official engagement was an appearance at the Sikh celebrations for Vaisakhi in Trafalgar Square.[203] Rather than bringing a team of assistants with him to the job as Livingstone had done, Johnson built his team over the following six months.[204] Those in City Hall who were deemed too closely allied to Livingstone's administration had their employment terminated.[205] Johnson appointed Tim Parker to be first Deputy Mayor, but after Parker began taking increasing control at City Hall and insisted that all staff report directly to him, Johnson dismissed him.[206] As a result of these problems, many in the Conservative Party initially distanced themselves from Johnson's administration, fearing that it would be counter-productive to achieving a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election
He received criticism during the early weeks of his administration, largely because he was late for two official functions in his first week on the job, and because after three weeks he went on holiday to Turkey.[205] In July 2008, Johnson visited the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there offending his Chinese hosts with his attire.[208] During the electoral campaign, Johnson had confided to Brian Paddick that he was unsure how he would retain his current lifestyle while relying upon the mayoral salary of £140,000 a year.[209] To resolve this problem, he agreed to continue his Telegraph column alongside his mayoral job, thus earning a further £250,000 a year.[210] His team believed that this would cause controversy, and made him promise to donate a fifth of his Telegraph fee to a charitable cause providing bursaries for students. Johnson resented this, and ultimately did not pay a full fifth.[211] Controversy erupted when he was questioned about his Telegraph fee on BBC's HARDtalk; here, he referred to the £250,000 as "chicken feed", something that was widely condemned given that this was roughly 10 times the average yearly wage for a British worker.[212][213][214]
During his first administration, Johnson was embroiled in several personal scandals. After moving to a new house in Islington, he built a shed on his balcony without obtaining planning permission; after neighbours complained, he dismantled the shed.[215] The press also accused him of having an affair with Helen Macintyre and of fathering her child, allegations that he did not deny.[216][217][218][219] Controversy was generated when Johnson was accused of warning the MP Damian Green that police were planning to arrest him; Johnson denied the claims and did not face criminal charges under the Criminal Justice Act.[220] He was accused of cronyism,[221] in particular for appointing Veronica Wadley, a former Evening Standard editor who had supported him, as the chair of London's Arts Council when she was widely regarded as not being the best candidate for the position.[222][223][224] He was caught up in the parliamentary expenses scandal and accused of excessive personal spending on taxi journeys. His deputy mayor Ian Clement was found to have misused a City Hall credit card, resulting in his resignation.[225] Johnson remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status.[226] In 2009, he rescued Franny Armstrong from anti-social teenagers who had threatened her while he was cycling past.[227][228][229]
Policies
Johnson made no major changes to the mayoral system as developed by Livingstone.[230] He reversed several measures implemented by Livingstone's administration, ending the city's oil deal with Venezuela, abolishing The Londoner newsletter, and scrapping the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, although the latter were reinstated three years later.[231] Abolishing the western wing of the congestion charging zone,[232] he cancelled plans to increase the congestion charge for four-wheel-drive vehicles.[233] He was subsequently accused of failing to publish an independent report on air pollution commissioned by the Greater London Authority, which revealed that the city breached legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels.[234][235][236][237]
Johnson retained Livingstone projects such as Crossrail and the 2012 Olympic Games, but was accused of trying to take credit for them.[238] He introduced a public bicycle scheme that had been mooted by Livingstone's administration; colloquially known as "Boris Bikes", the partly privately financed system cost £140 million and was a significant financial loss although it proved popular.[239][240] Despite Johnson's support of cycling in London—and his much publicised identity as a cyclist himself—his administration was criticised by some cycling groups who argued that he had failed to make the city's roads safer for cyclists.[241] As per his election pledge, he also commissioned the development of the New Routemaster buses for central London.[242] He also ordered the construction of a cable car system that crossed the River Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks
Born in New York City to upper-middle class British parents, Johnson was educated at the European School, Brussels I; Ashdown House; and Eton College. He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. He began his career in journalism at The Times but was dismissed for falsifying a quotation. He later became The Daily Telegraph's Brussels correspondent, and his articles exerted a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment on the British right. He was an assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph from 1994 to 1999, and edited The Spectator from 1999 to 2005. He was elected MP for Henley in 2001, and served as a Junior Shadow Minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron. He largely adhered to the Conservatives' party line but adopted a socially liberal stance on issues such as LGBT rights in parliamentary votes. Resigning as an MP, in 2008 he was elected Mayor of London, and was re-elected in 2012. During his mayoralty, he banned alcohol consumption on much of London's public transport, oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics, and introduced the New Routemaster buses, cycle hire scheme, and Thames cable car.
In 2015, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, stepping down as mayor the following year. In 2016, he became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit. He then served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Theresa May's premiership – a post from which he resigned in criticism of May's approach to Brexit and the Chequers Agreement two years later. After May resigned in 2019, he was elected Conservative leader and appointed prime minister. In August 2019, Johnson controversially advised Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue Parliament from 10 September to 14 October; on 24 September this action was unanimously ruled to be unlawful and of no effect by the Supreme Court. In September 2019, Johnson suspended 21 of his own Conservative MPs; 10 of the 21 suspended had the whip restored in October.
Johnson is a controversial figure in British politics and journalism. Supporters have praised him as an entertaining, humorous, and popular figure, with an appeal stretching beyond traditional Conservative voters. He has been accused of dishonesty, elitism, and cronyism, and of using racist, sexist, and homophobic language. Johnson is the subject of several biographies and a number of fictionalised portrayals.
Early life
Childhood: 1964–1977
Johnson was born to upper-middle class British parents on 19 June 1964 in Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City.[7][8] His father, Stanley Johnson, was then studying economics at Columbia University.[9] Johnson's mother is Charlotte Fawcett,[10] daughter of Sir James Fawcett and an artist from a family of liberal intellectuals. Johnson's parents married in 1963, before moving to the US.[11]
Johnson's parents lived opposite the Chelsea Hotel,[12] although in September 1964 they returned to Britain so that Charlotte could study at the University of Oxford.[13] She lived with her son in Summertown, Oxford, and gave birth to a daughter, Rachel, in 1965.[14] In July 1965, the family moved to Crouch End in North London;[15] in February 1966, they relocated to Washington, D.C., where Stanley had gained employment with the World Bank.[16] A third child, Leo, was born in September 1967.[17] Stanley then gained employment with a policy panel on population control, in June moving the family to Norwalk, Connecticut
In 1969, the family settled into Stanley's family farm, West Nethercote Farm, near Winsford in Exmoor in the west of England.[19] There, Johnson gained his first experiences with fox hunting.[20] Stanley was regularly absent from Nethercote, leaving Johnson to be raised largely by his mother and au pairs.[21] As a child, Johnson was quiet and studious,[15] although he suffered from deafness, resulting in several operations to insert grommets into his ears.[22] He and his siblings were encouraged to engage in highbrow activities from a young age,[23] with high achievement being greatly valued; Johnson's earliest recorded ambition was to be "world king".[24] Having few or no friends other than their siblings, the children became very close.[25]
In late 1969, the family relocated to Maida Vale, West London, where Stanley began post-doctoral research at the London School of Economics.[26] In 1970, Charlotte and the children briefly returned to Nethercote, where Johnson was schooled at the Winsford Village School, before returning to London to settle in Primrose Hill,[27] there being educated at Primrose Hill Primary School.[28] In late 1971, another son, Joseph, was born to the family.[29]
After Stanley secured employment at the European Commission, he moved his family in April 1973 to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School, Brussels I and learned to speak French.[30][31] Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with clinical depression, and Johnson and his siblings were sent to Ashdown House preparatory boarding school in East Sussex in 1975.[32] There he developed a love of rugby and excelled at Ancient Greek and Latin;[33] he was appalled at the teachers' use of corporal punishment.[34] Meanwhile, Stanley's and Charlotte's relationship broke down in December 1978 and they divorced in 1980.[35] Charlotte moved into a flat in Notting Hill, where her children spent much of their time with her.[36]
Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987
Johnson was awarded a King's Scholarship to study at Eton College, the independent boarding school in Eton, Berkshire.[38] Arriving in the autumn term of 1977,[39] Johnson began using the given name Boris rather than Alex, and developed "the eccentric English persona" for which he would become known.[40] He abandoned his mother's Catholicism and became an Anglican, joining the Church of England.[41] Although school reports complained about his idleness, complacency, and lateness,[42] he was popular and well known at Eton.[40] His friends were largely from the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes; his best friends were Darius Guppy and Charles Spencer, both of whom accompanied him to the University of Oxford and remained friends into adulthood.[43] Johnson excelled in English and Classics, winning prizes in both,[44] and became secretary of the school debating society,[45] and editor of the school newspaper, The Eton College Chronicle.[46] In late 1981, he was admitted to the Eton Society.[47] Upon finishing his time at Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an elite independent boarding school
Johnson won a scholarship to read Literae Humaniores, a four-year course based on the study of Classics, at Balliol College, Oxford.[51] Starting at the university in late 1983,[52] he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who were to dominate British politics and media in the second decade of the 21st century; among them David Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles went on to become senior Conservative Party MPs.[53] At university he played rugby for Balliol[54] and associated primarily with Old Etonians, joining the Old Etonian-dominated Bullingdon Club, an upper-class drinking society known for vandalism.[55][56] He entered into a relationship with the upper-middle class Allegra Mostyn-Owen, and they became engaged while at university.[57]
Johnson was popular and well known at Oxford.[58] Alongside Guppy he co-edited the university's satirical magazine Tributary.[59] In 1984, Johnson was elected secretary of the Oxford Union,[60] before campaigning for the position of Union president, losing the election to Neil Sherlock.[61] In 1986, Johnson ran for president again, aided by undergraduate Frank Luntz; his campaign focused on reaching out from his established upper-class support base by emphasising his persona and playing down his Conservative connections.[62] Hoping to court their vote, Johnson associated with university groups affiliated with the centrist Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Liberal Party.[63] Luntz later alleged that Johnson portrayed himself as an SDP supporter during the campaign, although Johnson says he has no recollection of this.[63][64] Johnson won the election and was appointed president,[65] although his presidency was not seen as particularly distinguished or memorable,[66] and questions were raised regarding his competence and seriousness.[67] Having specialised in the study of ancient literature and classical philosophy, Johnson graduated from Balliol College with an upper second-class degree,[68][69] but was deeply unhappy that he did not receive a first.[70]
Early career
The Times and The Daily Telegraph: 1987–1994
Johnson and Mostyn-Owen married in West Felton, Shropshire, in September 1987; Allegra e Boris[72] – a duet for violin and viola – was specially commissioned for the wedding from Hans Werner Henze.[73] After a honeymoon in Egypt they settled in West Kensington, West London.[74] Johnson secured work for a management consultancy company, L.E.K. Consulting, but resigned after a week.[75] Through family connections, in late 1987 he began work as a graduate trainee at The Times.[76] Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article on the archaeological discovery of Edward II's palace for the newspaper. Johnson invented a quote for the article that he falsely claimed came from the historian Colin Lucas, his own godfather. After The Times' editor Charles Wilson learned of the deception, Johnson was dismissed.[77]
Johnson secured employment on the leader-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having known its editor, Max Hastings, through his Oxford University Union presidency.[78] His articles were designed to appeal to the newspaper's conservative, middle-class, middle-aged "Middle England" readership,[79] and were known for their distinctive literary style, replete with old-fashioned words and phrases, and for regularly referring to the readership as "my friends".[80] In early 1989, Johnson was appointed to the newspaper's Brussels bureau to report on the European Commission,[81] remaining in the post until 1994.[82] A strong critic of Commission President Jacques Delors, he established himself as one of the city's few Eurosceptic journalists.[83] Many of his fellow journalists there were critical of his articles, opining that they often contained lies designed to discredit the Commission;[84] Chris Patten later stated that, at that time, Johnson was "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".[82]
Johnson biographer Andrew Gimson believed that these articles made Johnson "one of [Euroscepticism's] most famous exponents".[71] According to later biographer Sonia Purnell – who was Johnson's Brussels deputy[82] – he helped make Euroscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas previously it was associated with the British Left.[85] Johnson's articles established him as the favourite journalist of the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,[86] although Thatcher's successor, John Major, was annoyed by Johnson and spent much time attempting to refute his claims.[87] Johnson's articles exacerbated tensions between the Conservative Party's Eurosceptic and Europhile factions, tensions which were widely viewed as contributing to the party's defeat in the 1997 general election. As a result, Johnson earned the mistrust of many party members.[88] His writings were also a key influence on the emergence of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the early 1990s.[85] His proprietor at the Telegraph, Conrad Black, said Johnson "was such an effective correspondent for us in Brussels that he greatly influenced British opinion on this country’s relations with Europe."[89]
In February 1990, Johnson's wife left him; after several attempts at reconciliation, they divorced in April 1993.[90] He entered a relationship with a childhood friend, Marina Wheeler, who had moved to Brussels in 1990.[91] In May 1993, they married at Horsham, Sussex,[92] and Wheeler gave birth to a daughter soon after.[93] Johnson and his new wife settled in Islington, North London,[94] an area known for its left-liberal intelligentsia. Under the influence of this milieu and his wife, Johnson moved in a more liberal direction on issues like climate change, LGBT rights, and race relations.[95] The couple had three further children in Islington, each given the joint surname of Johnson-Wheeler,[96] who were sent to the local Canonbury Primary School and then private secondary schools.[97] Devoting much time to his children, Johnson wrote a book of verse, Perils of the Pushy Parents – A Cautionary Tale, which was published to largely poor reviews.[98]
Political columnist: 1994–1999
Back in London, Hastings turned down Johnson's request to become a war reporter,[99] instead promoting him to the position of assistant editor and chief political columnist.[100] Johnson's column received praise for being ideologically eclectic and distinctively written, and earned him a Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards.[101] He was also accused of bigotry; in one column he used the words "piccannies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, and championed European colonialism in Uganda,[102][103][104] while in another he referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys
Contemplating a political career, in 1993 Johnson outlined his desire to stand as a Conservative candidate to be a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Although Andrew Mitchell convinced Major not to veto Johnson's candidacy, Johnson found it impossible to find a constituency.[106] He subsequently turned his attention to obtaining a seat in the UK House of Commons. After being rejected as Conservative candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras, he was selected as the party's candidate for Clwyd South in North Wales, a Labour Party safe seat. Spending six weeks campaigning, he attained 9,091 votes (23%) in the 1997 general election, losing to the Labour candidate.[107]
Scandal erupted in June 1995 when a recording of a 1990 telephone conversation between Johnson and his friend Darius Guppy was made public.[108] In the conversation, Guppy said that his criminal activities were being investigated by News of the World journalist Stuart Collier, and he asked Johnson to provide him with Collier's private address, seeking to have the latter beaten to the extent of "a couple of black eyes and a cracked rib or something like that". Johnson agreed to supply the information although he expressed concern that he would be associated with the attack.[108] When the phone conversation was published in 1995, Johnson stated that he did not ultimately give the information to Guppy; Hastings reprimanded Johnson but did not dismiss him.[108]
Johnson was given a regular column in The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph's sister publication; it attracted mixed reviews and was often thought rushed.[109] In 1999, he was also given a column on new cars in the magazine GQ.[110] His behaviour regularly annoyed his editors; those at GQ were frustrated by the large number of parking fines that Johnson acquired while testing cars for them,[105] while he was consistently late in providing his columns for The Telegraph and The Spectator, forcing many staff to stay late to accommodate him; they related that if they went ahead and published without his work included, he would get angry and shout at them with expletives.[111]
Johnson's appearance on an April 1998 episode of Have I Got News for You brought him to a far wider audience; emphasising a bumbling upper-class persona, he was viewed as entertaining and invited back on to later episodes, including as a guest presenter.[112] After these, he came to be recognised on the street by the public, and was invited to appear on other television shows, such as Top Gear, Parkinson, Breakfast with Frost, and Question Time.[113]
The Spectator and MP for Henley: 1999–2008
In July 1999, Conrad Black – proprietor of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator – offered Johnson the editorship of the latter on the condition he abandon his parliamentary aspirations; Johnson agreed.[114] While retaining The Spectator's traditional right-wing bent, Johnson welcomed contributions from leftist writers and cartoonists.[115] Under Johnson's editorship, the magazine's circulation grew by 10% to 62,000 and it began to turn a profit.[116] His editorship also drew criticism; some opined that under him The Spectator avoided serious issues,[117] while colleagues became annoyed that he was regularly absent from the office, meetings, and events.[118] He gained a reputation as a poor political pundit as a result of incorrect political predictions made in the magazine,[117] and was strongly criticised – including by his father-in-law Charles Wheeler – for allowing Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos to publish racist and antisemitic language in the magazine.[119][120]
Journalist Charlotte Edwardes alleged in 2019 that Johnson had squeezed her thigh at a private lunch in the offices of the Spectator in 1999 and that another woman had told her that he had done the same to her. A Downing Street spokesman denied the allegation.[121]
In 2004, Johnson controversially published an editorial in The Spectator suggesting that Liverpudlians were "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough disaster and partly blaming the tragedy on "drunken fans".[122] In an appendix added to a later edition of his 2005 book about the Roman empire, The Dream of Rome, Johnson was criticised for arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the west.[123]
Becoming an MP
Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand as Conservative candidate for Henley, a Conservative safe seat in Oxfordshire.[125] The local Conservative branch was split over Johnson's candidacy – some thought him amusing and charming; others disliked his flippant attitude and lack of knowledge about the local area – although they did select him.[126] Boosted by his television fame, Johnson stood as the Conservative candidate for the constituency in the 2001 general election, winning with a majority of 8,500 votes.[127] Alongside his Islington home, Johnson bought a farmhouse outside Thame in his new constituency.[128] He regularly attended Henley social events and occasionally wrote for the Henley Standard.[129] His constituency surgeries proved popular, and he joined local campaigns to stop the closure of Townlands Hospital and the local air ambulance.[130]
In Parliament, Johnson was appointed to a standing committee assessing the Proceeds of Crime Bill, although he missed many of its meetings.[131] Despite his credentials as a public speaker, his speeches in the House of Commons were widely deemed lacklustre; Johnson later called them "crap".[132] In his first four years as MP he attended just over half of the Commons votes; in his second term this declined to 45%.[133] He usually supported the Conservative party line although he rebelled against it five times in this period, reflecting a more socially liberal attitude than many colleagues; he voted to repeal Section 28 and supported the Gender Recognition Act 2004.[134] Although initially stating he would not, he voted in support of the government's plans to join the US in the 2003 invasion of Iraq,[128] and in April 2003 visited occupied Baghdad.[135] In August 2004, he backed unsuccessful impeachment procedures against Prime Minister Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" regarding the war,[136] and in December 2006 described the invasion as "a colossal mistake and misadventure".[137]
Although labelling Johnson "ineffably duplicitous" for breaking his promise not to become an MP, Black decided not to dismiss him because he "helped promote the magazine and raise its circulation".[138] Johnson remained editor of The Spectator, also writing columns for The Daily Telegraph and GQ, and making television appearances.[139] His 2001 book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen: Jottings on the Stump, recounted that year's election campaign,[140] while 2003's Lend Me Your Ears collected together previously published columns and articles.[141] In 2004, his first novel was published: Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors revolved around the life of a Conservative MP and contained various autobiographical elements.[142] Responding to critics who argued that he was juggling too many jobs, he cited Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli as exemplars who combined their political and literary careers.[143] To manage the stress he took up jogging and cycling,[144] and became so well known for the latter that Gimson suggested that he was "perhaps the most famous cyclist in Britain".[145]
Following William Hague's resignation as Conservative leader, Johnson backed Kenneth Clarke, regarding Clarke as the only candidate capable of winning a general election. However, Iain Duncan Smith was elected.[146] Johnson had a strained relationship with Duncan Smith, and The Spectator became critical of the latter's party leadership.[147] Duncan Smith was removed from his position in November 2003 and replaced by Michael Howard; Howard deemed Johnson to be the most popular Conservative politician with the electorate and appointed him vice-chairman of the party, responsible for overseeing its electoral campaign.[148] In his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle of May 2004, Howard appointed Johnson to the position of shadow arts minister.[149] In October, Howard ordered Johnson to publicly apologise in Liverpool for publishing a Spectator article – anonymously written by Simon Heffer – which claimed that the crowds at the Hillsborough disaster had contributed towards the incident and that Liverpudlians had a predilection for reliance on the welfare state.[150][151]
In November 2004, tabloids revealed that since 2000 Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt, resulting in two terminated pregnancies. Johnson initially called the claims "piffle".[152] After the allegations were proven, Howard asked Johnson to resign as vice-chairman and shadow arts minister for publicly lying; when Johnson refused, Howard dismissed him from those positions.[153][154] The scandal was satirised by The Spectator's theatre critics Toby Young and Lloyd Evans in a play, Who's the Daddy?, performed at Islington's King's Head Theatre in July 2005.[155]
Second term
In the 2005 general election, Johnson was re-elected MP for Henley, increasing his majority to 12,793.[156] Labour won the election and Howard stood down as Conservative leader; Johnson backed David Cameron as his successor.[157] After Cameron was elected, he appointed Johnson as the shadow higher education minister, acknowledging his popularity among students.[158] Interested in streamlining university funding,[159] Johnson supported Labour's proposed top-up fees.[160] In September 2006, his image was used in pro-Conservative "Boris needs you" and "I Love Boris" material during university Freshers' Week.[161] In 2006, Johnson campaigned to become the Rector of the University of Edinburgh, but his support for top-up fees damaged his campaign and he came third.[162][163]
In April 2006, the News of the World alleged that Johnson was having an affair with the journalist Anna Fazackerley; the pair refused to comment, and shortly afterwards Johnson began employing Fazackerley.[164][165] That month, he attracted further public attention for rugby-tackling former footballer Maurizio Gaudino in a charity football match.[166] In September 2006, Papua New Guinea's High Commission protested after he compared the Conservatives' frequently changing leadership to cannibalism in Papua New Guinea.[167]
In 2005, The Spectator's new chief executive, Andrew Neil, dismissed Johnson as editor.[168] To make up for this financial loss, Johnson negotiated with The Daily Telegraph to raise his annual fee from £200,000 to £250,000, averaging at £5,000 per column, each of which took up around an hour and a half of his time.[169][170] He presented a popular history television show, The Dream of Rome, for production company Tiger Aspect; the show was broadcast in January 2006 and a book followed in February.[171] Through his own production company, he produced a sequel, After Rome, focusing on early Islamic history.[172] As a result of his various activities, in 2007 he earned £540,000, making him the UK's third-highest-earning MP that year.[173]
Mayor of London
Mayoral election: 2007–2008
In March 2007, Johnson proposed standing as Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in the 2008 mayoral election.[174] Most Conservatives did not take him seriously, favouring Nick Boles.[175] However, after Boles withdrew, Johnson gained Cameron's support,[176] and was endorsed by the London Evening Standard.[29] In July, he announced his candidacy,[177][178] and in September was selected Conservative candidate after gaining 79% of the vote in a public London-wide primary.[179][180] In the selection contest, he beat Victoria Borwick, Andrew Boff and Warwick Lightfoot.
The Conservatives hired election strategist Lynton Crosby to run Johnson's mayoral campaign,[181] which was primarily funded by sympathisers in London's financial sector.[182] Johnson's campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the AEC Routemaster.[183] During his campaign, Johnson also advocated the law being flexible for "[cases] when cannabis is being used to alleviate severe and chronic pain".[184] Targeting the Conservative-leaning suburbs of outer London, it capitalised on perceptions that the Labour Mayoralty had neglected them in favour of inner London.[185] His campaign emphasised his popularity, even among those who opposed his policies,[186] with opponents complaining that a common attitude among voters was: "I'm voting for Boris because he is a laugh".[183]
Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone took Johnson seriously, referring to him as "the most formidable opponent I will face in my political career."[187] Livingstone's campaign portrayed Johnson as an out-of-touch toff and bigot, citing racist and homophobic language used in his column; Johnson responded that these quotes had been taken out of context and were meant as satire.[188] Johnson insisted he was not a bigot, declaring: "I'm absolutely 100% anti-racist; I despise and loathe racism".[189] Publicly emphasising his Turkish ancestry,[190] he went contrary to Conservative policy by endorsing an earned amnesty for illegal immigrants.[191] The allegations were exacerbated when the fascist British National Party (BNP) urged supporters to give their second preference votes to Johnson; he responded by "utterly and unreservedly" condemning the BNP.[192][193] Further controversy arose when Johnson admitted having used cannabis and cocaine as a student.[194]
The May 2008 election saw a turnout of approximately 45%, with Johnson receiving 43% and Livingstone 37% of first-preference votes; when second-preference votes were added, Johnson proved victorious with 53% to Livingstone's 47%.[195][196] Johnson benefited from a large voter turnout in Conservative strongholds like Bexley and Bromley.[197] Having secured the largest personal electoral mandate in the UK,[198] he praised Livingstone as a "very considerable public servant" and added that he hoped to "discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London".[196] He announced his resignation as MP for Henley,[199][200] generating some anger from Henley party members and constituents who felt abandoned.[201]
First term: 2008–2012
Settling into the City Hall mayoral office,[202] Johnson's first official engagement was an appearance at the Sikh celebrations for Vaisakhi in Trafalgar Square.[203] Rather than bringing a team of assistants with him to the job as Livingstone had done, Johnson built his team over the following six months.[204] Those in City Hall who were deemed too closely allied to Livingstone's administration had their employment terminated.[205] Johnson appointed Tim Parker to be first Deputy Mayor, but after Parker began taking increasing control at City Hall and insisted that all staff report directly to him, Johnson dismissed him.[206] As a result of these problems, many in the Conservative Party initially distanced themselves from Johnson's administration, fearing that it would be counter-productive to achieving a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election
He received criticism during the early weeks of his administration, largely because he was late for two official functions in his first week on the job, and because after three weeks he went on holiday to Turkey.[205] In July 2008, Johnson visited the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there offending his Chinese hosts with his attire.[208] During the electoral campaign, Johnson had confided to Brian Paddick that he was unsure how he would retain his current lifestyle while relying upon the mayoral salary of £140,000 a year.[209] To resolve this problem, he agreed to continue his Telegraph column alongside his mayoral job, thus earning a further £250,000 a year.[210] His team believed that this would cause controversy, and made him promise to donate a fifth of his Telegraph fee to a charitable cause providing bursaries for students. Johnson resented this, and ultimately did not pay a full fifth.[211] Controversy erupted when he was questioned about his Telegraph fee on BBC's HARDtalk; here, he referred to the £250,000 as "chicken feed", something that was widely condemned given that this was roughly 10 times the average yearly wage for a British worker.[212][213][214]
During his first administration, Johnson was embroiled in several personal scandals. After moving to a new house in Islington, he built a shed on his balcony without obtaining planning permission; after neighbours complained, he dismantled the shed.[215] The press also accused him of having an affair with Helen Macintyre and of fathering her child, allegations that he did not deny.[216][217][218][219] Controversy was generated when Johnson was accused of warning the MP Damian Green that police were planning to arrest him; Johnson denied the claims and did not face criminal charges under the Criminal Justice Act.[220] He was accused of cronyism,[221] in particular for appointing Veronica Wadley, a former Evening Standard editor who had supported him, as the chair of London's Arts Council when she was widely regarded as not being the best candidate for the position.[222][223][224] He was caught up in the parliamentary expenses scandal and accused of excessive personal spending on taxi journeys. His deputy mayor Ian Clement was found to have misused a City Hall credit card, resulting in his resignation.[225] Johnson remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status.[226] In 2009, he rescued Franny Armstrong from anti-social teenagers who had threatened her while he was cycling past.[227][228][229]
Policies
Johnson made no major changes to the mayoral system as developed by Livingstone.[230] He reversed several measures implemented by Livingstone's administration, ending the city's oil deal with Venezuela, abolishing The Londoner newsletter, and scrapping the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, although the latter were reinstated three years later.[231] Abolishing the western wing of the congestion charging zone,[232] he cancelled plans to increase the congestion charge for four-wheel-drive vehicles.[233] He was subsequently accused of failing to publish an independent report on air pollution commissioned by the Greater London Authority, which revealed that the city breached legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels.[234][235][236][237]
Johnson retained Livingstone projects such as Crossrail and the 2012 Olympic Games, but was accused of trying to take credit for them.[238] He introduced a public bicycle scheme that had been mooted by Livingstone's administration; colloquially known as "Boris Bikes", the partly privately financed system cost £140 million and was a significant financial loss although it proved popular.[239][240] Despite Johnson's support of cycling in London—and his much publicised identity as a cyclist himself—his administration was criticised by some cycling groups who argued that he had failed to make the city's roads safer for cyclists.[241] As per his election pledge, he also commissioned the development of the New Routemaster buses for central London.[242] He also ordered the construction of a cable car system that crossed the River Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks
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