Boris Johnson

“He’s less fit to be PM than my Labrador” former Daily Telegraph editor Max Hastings

“He lies- so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly- that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies” Johnson's ex-aide Dominic Cummings

…”a nasty piece of work” Eddie Mair, BBC

“He’s went into the fridge” Good Morning Britain

Early life

Journalism

Early political career

Campaign to become Prime Minister

Being Prime Minister

The long drawn out end to his political career

Laziness

Will he ever go away?

Personal life

Public Image

Conclusion

Early Life

Alexander “Boris” de Pfeffel Johnson was born on the 19th June, 1964 in Manhattan, New York, USA.

Throughout his early life, Alexander, attended a number of elite private or boarding schools. It wasn’t until his teenage years where he became Boris, when he enrolled at the Eton College (eventually going on to be the 20th Prime Minister to do so). The college has a £50,000 per year price tag, but Johnson’s fees were part-paid via a scholarship, although it is unclear how or why.

It was at this tender age where he was already displaying “rules are for other people” selfishness, as we can see in this letter, written to his father when Johnson would have been 17.

Reported laziness and lack of willingness to apply himself to his studies aside, he somehow again managed to gain a place via scholarship at Oxford University. Here, he was part of the Bullingdon Club, which is an elitist, invitation-only dining club with a reputation for bad behaviour. An article written in the Guardian 2019, provides a first hand account from Johnson’s era. It describes the Bullingdon Club’s fondness for committing serious criminal damage, intimidation of outsiders, the “using” of sex workers and, unsurprisingly, misogyny.

Reflecting upon his time as a “Bullingdon Boy” in a 2013 documentary, Boris Johnson described the experience as “a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate arrogance, toffishness and twittishness”.

Although it does not seem that superhuman arrogance, toffishness and twittishness was reserved exclusively for his time as an undergraduate.

Journalism

Lying (part 1)

After graduating, he decided to pursue a career in journalism. Johnson got a job right away at The Times through someone in his family. However, he was sacked from this role when he was found out making up quotes.

Then, through a connection from Oxford, he was hired in 1989 at The Telegraph as a Brussels Correspondent. He lied in these articles too, including that the EU wanted to make condoms smaller to appease Italians, straighten bananas and ban prawn cocktail crisps.

Conspiracy to beat up a journalist

Much more seriously, during this time, he conspired to have another journalist beaten up for writing a damning article about a friend.

Bigotry

All through his journalism and author career, Johnson has been criticised for the amount of sexism, racism and homophobia in his writing. Some examples include

Calling gay men “tank-topped bumboys”
Describing Africans as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”
Criticising Muslim women as “it’s absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letterboxes” Telegraph 2018
Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the west
That Barack Obama has an "ancestral dislike" of Britain because he is "part-Kenyan"

Here are some more highlights of his literary career, are they words befitting of a future Prime Minister?

Working class men are “drunk, criminal, feckless and hopeless” Spectator, 1995
On the bottom 20% of society: “The group that supplies us with the chavs, the losers, the burglars, the drug addicts” The telegraph, 2005
On children of working mothers “Unloved and undisciplined and more likely to mug you on the street corner” 2006, via Guardian 2019. ironic to lambast single mothers when he is a deadbeat dad.
“Nanny is confiscating their toys. It is like one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy.” Reaction to the government's banning of handguns after the 1996 Dunblane massacre.

Early Political Career

Johnson became editor of The Spectator in 1999, on the promise to his boss that he would pause any political aspirations he had. Johnson lied about that and in 2001 was elected a Member of Parliament for the first time.

Also lied to the electorate saying he would stand down as editor of the Spectator if elected. He didn’t.

First stint as an MP (2001-2008)

Two job Johnson

In Johnson's first few years as a politician he appeared in the lobby in only around half of the votes that took place. But he retained many of his roles in journalism, earning £540,000 from it in 2007 alone.

Having an affair, getting caught, then lying about it, then getting caught about lying about it

Johnson’s celebrity status and popularity with the public led new party leader, Michael Howard to appoint him to the Shadow Cabinet. He only lasted a few months, however, as news emerged he was having an affair, which he then lied about, describing the allegations as an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When found out, Johnson refused to resign over it so was consequently sacked.

Being Mayor of London

Johnson was somewhat popular with voters and he did win re-election. However, his tenure was not scandal free.

Controversially, while Mayor, he continued to write for The Telegraph, earning £250,000 on top of his £140,000 mayoral salary. Johnson dismissed the criticisms and compared the second income as “chicken feed”.

Corruption Allegation (part 1)

Johnson was found to have given a total of £25,000 from mayoral and government funds to “tech entrepreneur” Jennifer Arcuri. He also allowed her to accompany him on trade missions and gave preferential access to his networks. She also claims they were having an affair. However Johnson denies there was any conflict of interest.

Johnson stood down as London Mayor in 2014 and again was elected as an MP in 2015.

Brexit campaign

Johnson eventually backed “Leave” in a referendum on EU Membership, but did not decide what side to take until the last minute. Johnson penned two articles for the Telegraph, one supporting remain, one supporting leave.

Enter Dominic Cummings (and more lying)

The Brexit campaign is when Dominic Cummings becomes a key ally to Johnson.

It was Cummings that came up with slogans such as “take back control” and campaigned based on false information regarding rumours of Turkey’s imminent EU membership.

Foreign Secretary

Theresa May appointed Johnson Foreign Secretary in 2016. A strange, and to many an unwelcome appointment.

His most serious mistake was in 2017, following the arrest in Iran of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Johnson was quoted in the House of Commons as saying "When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it.”

However, this was an incorrect statement, as she was visiting family. Johnson’s comments were used in Iranian court as evidence against Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who did not get released until 2022.

Links to Russia

Johnson has faced criticism for his relationships to the Lebedev family. The father, Alexander is an oligarch and former KGB agent, while the son, Eugeny, owns the Evening Standard.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many countries around the world sanctioned the Lebedevs, due to suspected close ties with Russian leader Vladamir Putin. Johnson, however did not apply the same sanctions. Does it have anything to do with the fact that Johnson and Lebedev have enjoyed foreign holidays together?

PM Campaign

Campaign to become Conservative Leader (and therefore Prime Minister)

Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in 2019, triggering a Conservative leadership contest.

Six months after becoming Prime Minister, Johnson called a General Election.

Lying (part 3- lying to get elected)

Urged there would be no border in the Irish sea and told Irish businessmen to throw their customs forms in the bin.

Johnson repeated numerous times in his election campaign that his government would build 40 new hospitals. This, at the outset, was a lie. Many “new hospitals” which considered as new were in fact basic refurbishments. By the end of 2022, these haven’t even been done with no information provided to many hospital trusts.

Avoiding scrutiny

In the run up to the 2019 General Election, Johnson did all he could to limit any form of scrutiny. He did the bare minimum press and debates, probably to avoid the risk of being asked any questions about past behaviour, as happened in the below video.

In one ludicrous scene on Good Morning Britain, he hid in a fridge for several minutes to avoid an interview with Piers Morgan live on TV.

Being Prime Minister

In 2019, Boris Johnson was elected by the public to became the most powerful man in the United Kingdom, the 55th Prime Minister.

His period in office was one of the most tumultuous, scandal-ridden and lawbreaking of anyone who came before him. But here are a few examples by way of summary:

An article in The Mirror chronicling the lies, scandals and U-turns of Johnson's first 1000 days in office
The Independent's catalogue of misleading statements (i.e., lies) Boris Johnson has told in Parliament.

Johnson's own brother resigned from government over concerns of his leadership.

For all his faults, supporters of Johnson praise his public speaking ability, his charisma and reputation as one of the great orators of our time. None of this is on display here:

While nobody spoke out about his inability for the role on the lead up, on reflection those who got to know the man said the signs were there all along.

The worst person at the worst time- Coronavirus

Johnson clearly desperately wanted to go down in history as the Brexit Prime Minister, instead he ended up being the COVID prime minister.

Don’t let history tell you that he did the best he could with a terrible situation. And noting the excess deaths and needless suffering from this time has nothing to do with hindsight. Despite all the data, advice from all professional, worldwide comparisons, every decision that was made was wrong, simply because they were made too late, in contrast to all the intelligence at their disposal at that time. The UK has suffered the worst death rate in G7, with the worst economic consequences. Laziness aside, these errors were also in large part because Johnson was unwilling to make difficult decisions. He was never prepared to do anything that will make him unpopular or to tell the public things they may not want to hear which undermined the response. Highlights of his leadership included:

Missing important COBRA meetings
Shaking hands with COVID patients contrary to his own government’s advice
Saying “let the bodies pile high”
Asking to be injected with COVID live on TV to show it wasn't serious
Asking advisers if pointing a hairdryer up your nose would kill COVID.

This man’s decision, or indecision, cost lives. Laziness cost lives. Cronyism cost lives. His flagrant disregard for anyone but himself cost lives.

Avoiding Accountability

Remarkably, having one of the worst pandemic responses in the developed world was not enough to hurt Johnson in the polls.

This is pattern has been feature of Johnson's throughout his life. He knows better than anyone that if you can brazenly ride out a scandal, before long the media and the public will move on to something else. Here are just a few examples of where he has fled accountability when times have gotten tough for his reputation.

Corruption allegations (part 2)

For reference, the Prime Minister's salary is over £150,000 per year. This does not include a generous expense allowance, which covers things such as £30,000 per year to decorate their home, No 10 Downing Street. As well as a generous credit card on which he is able to charge £4,400 for a boozy New York dinner for himself and 23 of his closest companions.

However, this was not enough for Johnson. There has been many examples of Johnson getting Conservative party donors to fund his lifestyle. It is hard to believe that donors would do this without expecting something in return. These included:

Over £100,000 for his flat refurbishment by friend and donor, Lord Brownlow. Johnson, at the same time, intervened to push forward a festival Brownlow wanted to organise.
Organic takeaway deliveries costing around £20,000 per year. While Downing Street have denied this, the evidence is fairly overwhelming
The nanny for his newborn baby, which in fact did not go down well with benefactors.
Richard Sharp, former investment banker, Tory donor and friend of Boris Johnson, arranged a guarantor for a £800,000 loan for Johnson in 2020. Shortly after this, Johnson recommended that Sharp be appointed as Chair of the BBC, a role which he was successfully awarded. Would Johnson have done this if he didn't get the money? Johnson and Sharp's relationship was so cosy that Johnson was told by his Cabinet Office staff via memo to "stop seeking advice" from Sharp about his financial matters.

Some might ask why Johnson, man who had enjoyed a lot of financial success, has to put around a begging bowl from people who seem to want something in return. Seemingly, his high cost of living is to do with childcare costs for his many offspring. We'll get to this later.

Out of touch

Johnson's struggles with money are not the same as most others'. This, unsurprisingly, means no idea of the struggles of normal people. He still tries to relate to us though, telling us to “keep a sense of perspective” through 2022 Cost of Living crisis, where millions are worried about affording basic living expenses. When energy costs are 3x the year before and inflation at 12%, just ask someone else to pay it for you?

The long drawn out end of his political career

It would seem that the media got tired of Johnson’s antics, towards the end of 2021, his dishonest chickens started coming home to roost.

Partygate

In December 2021, numerous allegations arose that staff, including key figures, close to Boris Johnson were having parties when the rest of the country were in lockdown. There were calls for him to resign at the time, but he maintained they were all work meetings.

A party on May 2020, which Boris Johnson attended, but claimed at Prime Minister’s Questions in 12th January 2022, that “he didn’t know it was a party”.

An investigation into "partygate" by civil servant Sue Gray leads to a fine for Boris Johnson for an illegal birthday party. Members of his own party then called for a confidence vote. As predicted he wins this vote, and claims everyone must “draw a line under it”

In 2022, it was revealed that Johnson's legal advice for the investigation into whether Johnson misled parliament over partygate was covered by the taxpayer. This bill as of February 2023 stood at £220,000, but could climb higher still.

Chris Pincher

The final nail in the coffin for Johnson was his delay in sacking deputy chief whip Chris Pincher when he was accused of sexually assaulting a male colleague.

The public outrage just got too much. Johnson in his arrogance, which wasn’t totally misplaced given how he lived his life up until now, thought he could ride out the storm. He couldn’t. He almost got away with partygate, thanks in no small part to the Metropolitan police.

Mass resignations that could not be ignored. The problem is- they knew Johnson’s character flaws beforehand and still backed him. The media must have known all of this, but did report on it until it was convenient. They do not have morals, they just read the room. The public were growing weary and had enough.

Johnson finally, reluctantly, resigned in July 2022. However, he begged to stay on over summer. Rather than use that time to help people or fulfill his duties, or tie up loose ends professionally, he instead went on a weeks-long jolly on the public purse. He also took this opportunity to payback a last few favours with the power he still had, including doling out some dubious resignation honours, one of which being his own dad

laziness

Laziness

Johnson is notoriously lazy which has been documented throughout his career. He seemingly doesn’t do details. For example, according to former aide Domininc Cummings, he did not understand the “oven ready” Brexit deal that this Prime Ministerial campaign hung on.

He clearly did not understand the potential impact of the pandemic that was due to hit in March 2020, given his slow reaction to overwhelming evidence.

Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, 7th July: ‘I want you to know that from now until the new Prime Minister is in place, your interests will be served and the government of the country will be carried on’. And if you’re naive enough to think he kept that promise, you clearly haven’t read any of this article.

Between resigning and leaving office officially, he went on two holidays, despite the summer of strikes, and the looming catastrophe of energy price hikes.

will he goaway

Will he ever go away?

Johnson attempted a political comeback when Liz Truss resigned after 48 days as PM. He ultimately did not run in the Conservative leadership contest but he insists that he got enough nominations, and would have won, he just didn’t want to.

There were claims from his allies that he had changed even though he spent the majority of his time since resigning on holiday. He describes himself as being on a "career hiatus" even though he is still a sitting MP, still earning £86,000 per year. He is being paid handsomely to neglect the constituents who voted for him.

Between resigning and the end of 2022, Johnson made over £1 million doing speeches. He has had accommodation and a wedding celebration also paid for by donors.

Not long before Johnson quit as an MP in summer 2023, was was still accepting donations, including £1 million form a crypto-bro, the single largest ever single donation to an MP.

Johnson's swift departure from Parliament was not surprising, given his low polling among the public and even among Conservative voters. Very few trust Johnson anymore, with a majority of people thinking he is untrustworthy. This snap poll on BBC Question Time, from March 2023, is noteworthy.

Now Johnson is out of party politics he is back working as a journalist and speaker, earning a lot of money to do so. Although we will no longer know exactly how much as he does not need to declare his earnings.

In October 2023, GB News announced that Johnson would become another in a long line of current and former Tory MPs to join their network as presenter. His pay is undisclosed but understood to be at least six figures.

Personal Life

Johnson has been married three times, divorced twice. He has reportedly cheated on his partners multiple times. Has “at least 8” children, but will not confirm an exact number. It’s easy to have so many kids when you don’t take anything to do with them. This picture from August 2022 just sums him up:

This includes three children with his current wife, Carrie Johnson. Boris met Carrie when she was a Conservative staffer and while he was married to someone else.

The introduction to Carrie that most of us got was a report about an altercation between her and boyfriend Boris at their flat. The police were called when neighbours complained about hearing shouting, slamming and banging through the wall.

Boris Johnson has also been accused of sexual misconduct. Charlotte Edwardes, a journalist, claims Johnson groped her under the table at a dinner party. Another journalist subsequently made a similar allegation. Although Johnson’s press team denied the claims, Conservative colleagues such as Matt Hancock and Amber Rudd, backed Edwardes to be a trustworthy person while not explicitly supporting her allegations directly.

Public Image

At what point did Boris Johnson learn that becoming a moppish haired buffoon would help his career ambitions? Despite being an unprofessional and pretty shitty person, he’s cultivated a persona that somehow some people find endearing, and would therefore make him more popular.

Well known broadcaster Jeremy Vine wrote a blog of his experience with Johnson on the public speaking circuit. This anecdote sums up Boris Johnson’s disorganised, oaf energy and exposes it a very carefully cultivated act. I highly recommend you read in full, but in summary, Johnson turned up to a fundraiser one night where he was supposed to give the keynote address. He was very late and very dishevelled, and was so unprepared to the point he claimed to have forgotten the name of the event at which he was speaking. However, at the eleventh hour, he pulled a speech out the bag and the audience lapped it up. Vine then recounted several years later at a different event, Johnson caused the exact same commotion, going through the exact same performance, with the same end result. It was therefore all a sham.

What is disappointing is that many other journalists, including Vine, know Johnson and know his tricks and deceits. However, when they play along on the TV, they allow the character of “Boris” to go unquestioned and unchallenged. Until the end, the true details of his lies and deceits did not gain momentum in the media until it was convenient for them.

As has been said before, he lies almost as easily it as easy as he breathes. He is an act. Everything he does is an act. Some lies are big, some are so small they're almost pointless.

It seems to be just a game to him. It's been a game to journalists who have covered the life and lies of "Boris". But as we’ve seen, this game has had serious consequences.

Conclusion

Boris Johnson does not care about anyone but himself. Any decision he has ever made, all he has ever cared about was what would be best for his career.

The man is a problem for our democracy. His short three-year tenure was so littered with corruption and scandal that he has not only eroded trust in public office, but set the bar so low for expectations of our elected officials that in just a few short years, been led to such appalling standards of politicians and politics more widely. He is largely responsible for that.