Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson was a Conservative politician, member of the Parliament, and prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Contents
History
Johnson was born in Manhatten, New York City.
He entered politics as a journalist and commentator.
In 1997 he first ran for the House of Commons. The Welsh constituency of Clwyd South was considered a safe Labour seat, so his lack of success as the Conservative contestant was not unexpected. He was however selected to run in Henley, a safe Conservative seat, after Michael Heseltine announced his retirement in 1999. He won this race in the 2001 general elections.
After Michael Howard became party leader in 2003, Johnson was appointed vice chair. He was dismissed following an affair scandal the next year.
In 2007 he was selected to run for mayor of London. In the 2008 election, with his primary rival being Ken Livingstone, he won a plurality of the first choice vote and secured a majority with second choice votes. Shortly after he resigned his seat in the Parliament.
He did not run for a third term, stepping down in May 2016. He had already secured a new seat in the Commons in the 2015 general election and had been campaigning for Leave throughout 2016. Following the Brexit referendum in June, for which Cameron resigned, he was considered a leading candidate for leadership. May would eventually win and appoint him foreign secretary. This was perceived as a political move, as Johnson would be forced to take responsibility for fallout from Brexit.
Johnson and David Davis resigned from government in 2018 in protest of the government's Brexit negotiation strategy. The Conservative government, and the party more generally, began to fragment in the context of Brexit plans. Johnson in particular emerged as the leader of a contrary faction that opposed the Irish backstop and delays, and was willing to accept a 'hard Brexit'.
Controversially, he remained a staff writer at the Daily Telegraph through all of those years serving in political offices.
He played a significant part in defeating the government's drafts of the Withdrawal Agreement. After three losses, May resigned in March 2019; Johnson was again a leading candidate in the ensuing leadership contest. In late July he won with a wide margin over Jeremy Hunt.
His Brexit (re-)negotiation strategy hinged on the bully pulpit. He announced that the UK would exit the EU with or without a deal in October. The new Withdrawal Agreement was finalized in October, although there were challenges to ratifying it in the Parliament.
The fragmentation of the Conservative Party continued under Johnson. In late August, he petitioned Elizabeth II to prorogue Parliament until mid October, which was granted. Within a week this was ruled to be an unlawful act by lower courts; by the end of September the Supreme Court affirmed this. Also in September, Philip Lee abandoned the party for the Liberal Democrats, depriving the government of a majority. 21 further MPs had the whip withdrawn, effectively dismissing them from the party. Only 10 later had the whip reinstated. Amber Rudd resigned both from government and the party. Jo Johnson, Boris' brother, resigned both from the party and his parliamentary seat. In October, his renegotiated Withdrawal Agreement lost a vote, and the bill was pulled before a second vote it was generally expected to also lose. This all culminated in calling elections to be held in December.
The elections handed Johnson a large majority and firmer control over his party's MPs.
Following poor performance in the May 2022 local elections, Johnson's leadership was challenged in the 1922 Committee. He did however win the June vote.
The same month however, a scandal engulfed deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. When it emerged that the prime minister had in fact been briefed on intelligence that Pincher was a sexual predator, his government rapidly dissolved and Johnson was forced to resign.
The next year, Johnson was investigated for perjury in relation to statements made in the Parliament on purported violations of pandemic restrictions. He resigned his seat to avoid being censured.