Boris Johnson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable Boris Johnson
Official portrait, 2019
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 24 July 2019 – 6 September 2022
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	Dominic Raab
Preceded by	Theresa May
Succeeded by	Liz Truss
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 23 July 2019 – 5 September 2022
Preceded by	Theresa May
Succeeded by	Liz Truss
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 13 July 2016 – 9 July 2018
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Philip Hammond
Succeeded by	Jeremy Hunt
Mayor of London
In office 3 May 2008 – 9 May 2016
Deputy	Richard Barnes Victoria Borwick Roger Evans
Preceded by	Ken Livingstone
Succeeded by	Sadiq Khan
Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip
In office 7 May 2015 – 12 June 2023
Preceded by	John Randall
Succeeded by	Steve Tuckwell
Member of Parliament for Henley
In office 7 June 2001 – 4 June 2008
Preceded by	Michael Heseltine
Succeeded by	John Howell
Shadow Cabinet portfolios
2004	Arts
2005–2007	Higher Education
Personal details
Born	Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (1964-06-19) 19 June 1964 (age 60) New York City, US
Citizenship	United Kingdom United States (until 2016)
Political party	Conservative
Spouses	Allegra Mostyn-Owen ​ (1987⁠–⁠1993)​ Marina Wheeler ​ ​ (m. 1993; div. 2020)​ Carrie Symonds ​ (m. 2021)​
Parents	Stanley Johnson Charlotte Fawcett
Relatives	Johnson family
Residence	Brightwell Manor
Education	Eton College Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician author journalist
Signature

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022.

Johnson is seen by many as a controversial figure in British politics. His supporters have praised him for being humorous, witty, and entertaining.

Early life

Boris Johnson was born at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Upper East Side in New York City, New York. He is the eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson. Stanley is a former Conservative MEP (Member of the European Parliament). He was also an employee of the European Commission and the World Bank. Boris Johnson's mother is the painter Charlotte Fawcett (later Wahl). She is the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and the president of the European Commission of Human Rights.

Education

Johnson was educated at the European School in Brussels, Ashdown House and then at Eton College. At Eton, he was a King's Scholar. He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

Early career

In late 1987, through family connections, Johnson began working as a graduate trainee at The Times. He then secured employment on the lead-writing desk of The Daily Telegraph, having met its editor, Max Hastings. Johnson was later promoted to assistant editor and chief political columnist. His column received praise and earned him Commentator of the Year Award at the What the Papers Say awards.

Johnson was given a regular column in The Spectator, sister publication to The Daily Telegraph. In 1999, he was also given a column reviewing new cars in the American men's monthly magazine GQ.

Johnson's April 1998 appearance on the BBC's satirical current affairs show Have I Got News for You brought him national fame. He was invited back on to later episodes, including as a guest presenter; for his 2003 appearance, Johnson was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. After these appearances, he came to be recognised on the street, and was invited to appear on other shows, such as Top Gear, Parkinson, Breakfast with Frost, and Question Time.

From 1999 to 2008, Johnson was the editor of The Spectator.

Political career

Johnson gave a victory speech in City Hall after being elected as the Mayor of London

The New Routemaster bus introduced by Johnson's administration

Johnson at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Johnson became a member of the shadow cabinet of Michael Howard in 2001 before being sacked in 2004. After Howard resigned, he became a member of David Cameron's shadow cabinet. He was elected Mayor of London in 2008 and resigned from the House of Commons to focus his attention on the mayoralty. He was re-elected mayor in 2012. Johnson did not run for a third term for Mayor of London and stepped down on 5 May 2016.

At the 2015 general election he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Johnson was a prominent figure in the Brexit campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. After the referendum, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him foreign secretary. He resigned from the position in 2018 in protest at both the Chequers Agreement and May's approach to Brexit. Johnson succeeded May as prime minister.

Premiership (2019–2022)

On 24 July 2019, the day following Johnson's election as Conservative Party leader, Queen Elizabeth II accepted Theresa May's resignation and appointed Johnson as prime minister. Johnson appointed Dominic Cummings, whom he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign, as his senior advisor.

Johnson discussing Brexit with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris

Johnson signing the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement

Johnson re-opened Brexit negotiations with the European Union. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement but failing to win parliamentary support, he called a snap general election to be held in December 2019, in which he won a landslide victory.

During Johnson's premiership, the government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing various emergency powers to mitigate its impact and approved a nationwide vaccination programme.

In foreign affairs, Johnson supported the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas. Johnson's government placed importance on the "Special Relationship" with the United States. In 2022, his government introduced an asylum deal whereby people entering the UK illegally would be sent to Rwanda.

In July 2022, his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party led to a mass resignation of members of his government and to Johnson announcing his resignation as prime minister. He was succeeded as prime minister by Liz Truss, his foreign secretary.

Post-premiership (2022–present)

Johnson remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher until 9 June 2023.

In October 2023, Johnson announced he would join the television channel GB News as a commentator and programme maker for the next general election and US presidential election.

Johnson's memoirs Unleashed were released in October 2024.

Interesting facts about Boris Johnson

• As a child, Boris Johnson had severe (bad) deafness. He had many operations to have grommets put in his ears.
• Johnson was given the middle name "Boris" after a White Russian émigré named Boris Litwin, who was a friend of his parents.
• He became the first prime minister to be born outside British territories.
• Johnson has knowledge of French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek.
• He holds ancient Greek statesman Pericles as a personal hero.

Boris Johnson quotes

• "It is easy to make promises - it is hard work to keep them."
• "I'm in politics to change things - if possible, for the better."
• "My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters."
• "We cannot turn our backs on Europe. We are part of Europe."

Personal life

Since Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, he held British-American dual citizenship. In 2016, he renounced his US citizenship.

Relationships

Johnson with his then-fiancée Carrie Symonds at the 2020 Commonwealth Day service

In 1987, Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, daughter of the art historian William Mostyn-Owen and Italian writer Gaia Servadio. The couple's marriage ended in divorce or annulment in 1993 and 12 days later Johnson married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, daughter of journalist Charles Wheeler. Five weeks later, their first child was born. They have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.

In September 2018, Johnson and Wheeler issued a statement confirming that they had separated months earlier; they divorced in 2020.

In 2019, Johnson was living with Carrie Symonds, the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent newspaper. Johnson and Symonds became engaged in late 2019 and their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was born in April 2020.

On 29 May 2021, Johnson married Symonds at Westminster Cathedral. Their daughter, Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson, was born in December 2021. Their third child, a son named Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson, was born in July 2023.

Family and ancestors

Johnson and his younger brother Leo in 2013

Johnson is the eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative member of the European Parliament, and the painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, president of the European Commission of Human Rights. His younger siblings are Rachel Johnson, a writer and journalist, Leo Johnson, a broadcaster, and Jo Johnson, ex-minister of state and former Conservative MP for Orpington, who resigned from his brother's government in September 2019 and is now a member of the House of Lords. Johnson's stepmother, Jenny, the second wife of his father Stanley, is the stepdaughter of Teddy Sieff, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer. Having been a member of the Conservatives between 2008 and 2011, Rachel Johnson joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017. She stood as a candidate for Change UK in the 2019 European Elections. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Julia and Maximilian, through his father's later marriage to Jennifer Kidd.

Johnson's paternal grandfather, Wilfred Johnson, was an RAF pilot in Coastal Command during the Second World War. Wilfred Johnson's father was the Ottoman Interior Minister and journalist Ali Kemal. Ali Kemal's father was a Turk while his mother was a Circassian reputedly of slave origin. His other paternal ancestry includes English, German and French; one of his German ancestors was said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and thus a descendant of George II of Great Britain, which was later confirmed on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

Johnson's mother is the granddaughter of Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer and a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US, and Pennsylvania-born Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a translator of Thomas Mann. Referring to his varied ancestry, Johnson has described himself as a "one-man melting pot". Johnson was given the middle name "Boris" after a White Russian émigré named Boris Litwin, who was a friend of his parents.

Honours

Order of Liberty

• Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Brunel University London, 2007
• Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon FRIBA), 2011
• Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK, 26 January 2014
• Sworn in as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 15 July 2016, upon his appointment as foreign secretary. This gave him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life.
• Medical Education Ig Nobel Prize, 2020.
• Honorary Citizen of Odesa, 2 July 2022
• Member of the Order of Liberty (Ukraine), 24 August 2022
• Honorary Citizen of Kyiv, 19 January 2023
• Honorary Doctorate from Ivan Franko National University, Lviv

Works

Images for kids

• 

  Ashdown House preparatory school, East Sussex, attended by Johnson from 1975 to 1977

• 

  Johnson implemented Livingstone's idea of a public bicycle system; the result was dubbed the "Boris Bike".

• 

  Johnson studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

• 

  As shadow minister for higher education, Johnson visited various universities (as here at the University of Nottingham in 2006)

• 

  Johnson pledged to replace the city's articulated buses with New Routemaster buses if elected mayor

• 

  Johnson at the opening of NASDAQ in 2009

• 

  The New Routemaster bus introduced by Johnson's administration

• 

  Johnson's response to the 2011 London riots was criticised

• 

  Johnson lights the flame at the 2010 London Youth Games opening ceremony

• 

  Official portrait of Johnson as Foreign Secretary

• 

  Johnson with US president Donald Trump in 2017 UNGA

• 

  Johnson visiting the British Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma

• 

  Johnson meeting with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran in December 2017

• 

  Johnson with former UK prime minister Gordon Brown in May 2018

• 

  The logo used by Johnson's leadership campaign in 2019

• 

  Johnson holding his first cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, 25 July 2019

• 

  Johnson giving a speech in December 2019 after the 2019 general election

• 

  Johnson appointed Rishi Sunak (right) as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle

• 

  Johnson delivering a press conference on COVID-19, 31 July 2020

• 

  Johnson giving a speech in April 2020 after recovering from COVID-19

• 

  Johnson hosts virtual G7 meeting in February 2021

• 

  Johnson with US president Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall, 10 June 2021

• 

  Downing Street, where some of the gatherings took place

• 

  An image of Johnson at a social gathering, from Sue Gray's report into the partygate scandal.

• 

  Johnson with Keir Starmer and former prime minister Theresa May, 14 November 2021

• 

  Johnson with US president Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Biarritz, 26 August 2019

• 

  Johnson and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Berlin Conference on Libya, 19 January 2020

• 

  Johnson with Polish troops and Poland's PM Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw, 10 February 2022

• 

  Johnson walks on a street of war-hit Kyiv along with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 10 April 2022

• 

  Johnson at a demonstration against hospital closures with Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming (left) and Conservative MP Graham Stuart (centre) in March 2006

• 

  Johnson spoke about climate action at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on 1 November 2021

• 

  Johnson with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, 16 September 2019

• 

  Johnson speaking at Westminster Abbey's Commonwealth Day Service, 2020

See also

In Spanish: Boris Johnson para niños