Boris Johnson

Alexander BoJo' Boris de Pfeffel "Great Supine, Protoplasmic Invertebrate Jellies"[2] Johnson (1964–) is a smooth talking wannabe authoritarian who served as Mayor of London (2008-16), Foreign Secretary (July 2016–July 2018), and — somehow — Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Theresa May as Leader of the Conservative Party on 24 July 2019, and then securing a massive majority on 12 December 2019.[3] [4] A former opinion writer who got in trouble for yellow journalism, the man was elected mayor because he was funny once on Have I Got News For You and climbed the ladder from there, so that's Eddie Izzard for Prime Minister sewn up.

Ravishing guide to U.K. Politics

God Save the Queen?

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“” Idiots love Johnson's contrived, clownish TV persona, and so will vote for him even if his policies mean they'll be living under a flyover and cooking rats over a brazier.

—An amusingly accurate description from The Daily Mash.[1]

Despite (or perhaps because of) his buffoonish attitude, Boris has a knack for soothing the media, always managing to dodge scandals that would sink other, less skilled spin doctors. Think of him as a smarter, English Donald Trump, to whom he has often been compared.

Before the Brexit vote, he drove up and down the country in a German-made bus liveried with demonstrable lies.[5] Presumably, then, his career in politics is over? Of course not, he was handed one of the great offices of state: Foreign Secretary, the British equivalent of CIA Director/Secretary of State.[6] He resigned from this post in July, 2018, to completely avoid any responsibility for the gigantic mess that he had been crucial in creating protest the way Theresa May intended to deliver Brexit.[7]

Boris became the freshly-minted Prime Minister of the UK following the resignation of Theresa May, when he won a contest "decided by a 160,000-strong Tory membership that is 70% male, 97% white, 86% social class ABC1, 50% of whom read the Telegraph or the Daily Mail and who have an average age of 57".[8] Meritocracy and democracy doing well in Britain, as always (Boris too can call himself a "democratically elected leader"). He has started really well, by losing his first seven[9] more than[10] eight[11] parliamentary votes and a Supreme Court case that ruled he (or more accurately his pet Victorian Jacob Rees-Mogg) lied to the Queen[12].

Bigotry

Johnson's sexism on display while he was a "journalist" at the Daily Telegraph

Johnson has made multiple sexist, racist and homophobic comments throughout his career, for which he would like to keep getting a free pass each and every time because he was 'just joking'[13] — or perhaps just because he's a Tory.[14] Examples of his bigotry include:[13][14]

• Multiple uses of "hot totty" (i.e., women) and "tottymeter" (i.e., penis) and other inappropriate attempts at sexualizing and demeaning female politicians
• Accusing the Labour Party of teaching homosexuality in schools, comparing gay marriage to bestiality in his 2001 book Friends, Voters, Countrymen, calling the former First Secretary of State Peter Mandelson's supporters "tank-topped bumboys"
• Referring to African as "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles" in 2002, comparing Muslim women in burqas to "letter boxes" and bank robbers in 2018, and saying that Islamophobia is a natural reaction for non-Muslims in 2005

Background and personal life

"Oxford Union Becomes Ha-Ha Fest": What else is to be expected when Boris is elected President?

“”I never really knew the meaning of the word "shameless" until I beheld the career of Boris Johnson.

—Robert Harris[15]

Boris Johnson was born on 19 June 1964 in New York, USA, educated at Eton, (King's Scholar) and Balliol College, Oxford (Brackenbury Scholar in Classics).[16] The pollster Frank Luntz has claimed that while at Oxford Johnson touted himself as a supporter of the Social Democratic Party, then a dominant current at the university, as a strategy to win the Union presidency, though Johnson denies he was more than the SDP's preferred candidate.[17] Along with David Cameron he was a member of Oxford's Bullingdon Club, a student dining society known for its raucous feasts that often involved trashing everything and then paying cash for the damages.[18] In 2008, he claimed to have smoked "dope" and that he "was once given cocaine" while at university, "but I sneezed and so it did not go up my nose. In fact, I may have been doing icing sugar."[19]

He is an old-fashioned Tory Boy™ by genetics, i.e. distantly related to the royal family. He's classically liberal in the British sense: socially liberal, but with an appreciation for traditional institutions, e.g. the inevitability of a ruling class.[20] However, BoJo's past comments on homosexuality, race, the British Empire and its Commonwealth, the War on Terror, and Islam suggest an altogether different kind of Tory.[21]

Picture him as Tom Cruise: intense friendliness and "big laughter" thinly veiling the emptiness within.

After graduating in 1987, Johnson became a trainee reporter with the Times newspaper but was sacked within a year for falsifying a quotation from his godfather Colin Lucas.[22]

Then Conservative leader Michael Howard sacked Johnson as shadow arts minister in 2004 for lying about an affair with Spectator journalist Petronella Wyatt.[23]

During his time as Mayor of London, he repeatedly did favours for US businesswomen Jennifer Arcuri, who he was having a four-year affair with, inviting her on three overseas trade missions despite not qualifying and giving her business a total of £126,000 of public money.[24][25] He is now being reinvestigated[26] for the appointment of another woman he was having an affair with (who had his child!) Helen Macintyre,[27] another women who he didn't declare an interest with as Mayor of London, a scandal which he barely escaped censure from in 2010.[28]

Brexit campaigner

“”Donald Trump is popular because he seems so like the sort of figure who’d appear in a drama about a big-hitting businessman who takes on the political establishment and wins the presidency. It’s also why his campaign ads feel like something you’ve seen somewhere before but in another dimension...Boris Johnson’s main selling point is that he feels like how someone would be portrayed in a comedy drama about an eccentric good egg tripping up the establishment and becoming prime minister.

—Armando Iannucci[29]

BoJo did a number on London: He helped make it a haven of the super-rich,[30] then ran a campaign saying Don't listen to the super-rich in London.[31]

He was originally pro-European Union.[32] Then he, Michael Gove (former MP and News Corp columnist), and Nigel Farage (UKIP Leader) rode the backlash at UK working conditions out of Europe, each one surfing on the backs of empty promises about trade, immigration and national devices. (NHS etc.)[33] Boris later became the figurehead of a successful campaign to kick Cameron out.[34]

However, Gove was Boris' campaign manager for the PM position. He sabotaged the campaign from the inside and then announced he himself was running, only a couple of hours before the deadline.[35][36] Leaked reports showed that Rupert Murdoch was not a fan of Boris, and favored Gove for the leadership contest. Gove took a large swath of Johnson's supporters with him. They were friends for decades before this. Then Boris gave a campaign speech (the kind where you're supposed to rally your supporters) where he said,

In voting to leave the EU, it is vital to stress there is no need for haste, and as the prime minister has said, nothing will change in the short-term except how to give effect to the will of the people and to extracate this country from the supranational system. There is no need to invoke Article 50.[37]

Chuckle. Twitch.

Arise, Sir Boris of Theresa, first Viscunt of Westminster

Boris unexpectedly announced his withdrawal from the leadership race, leaving Gove and Theresa May the last ones standing.[38][39] Now, Boris Johnson will forever be remembered as an arsonist who didn't wanna put out the fire, and ran away in disgrace when things got rough.[40] The hurdle facing the next PM was negotiating a retreat from Europe (Article 50) on the cushiest possible terms, and the architects of Brexit were particularly ill-suited to achieve this. Boris won't be able to avoid posturing and calling them names (as well as being useless anyway), and Gove has all the charisma of an oil-slick; [41] neither would be given a soft landing by Europe. George Osborne is in the same sinking ship now....Good God, he may be the last PM of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[42]

Still, most Britons would escort Boris to Number 10 personally, if it kept Theresa out of the job[43] Damn.

Then she made Boris the foreign secretary. Even though he is the opposite of a diplomat.

Barack HUSSEIN Obama

Boris Johnson endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, but nine years later adopted the Birtherism of his fellow blonde, tousle-haired buffoon from over the pond, Donald Trump, saying that:[44]

Something mysterious happened when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in 2009 … It was a bust of Winston Churchill — the great British wartime leader. It was a fine goggle-eyed object, done by the brilliant sculptor Jacob Epstein, and it had sat there for almost ten years. But on day one of the Obama administration it was returned, without ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington … Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British empire — of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.[45]

Naturally, these Trumpian comments mentioning Obama's Kenyan ancestry  have naturally been described by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as "another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories" and the worst of Tea Party rhetoric.[46] The Washington Post notes that Johnson's comments "mentioned a [conspiracy] theory, prominent among some right-wing Americans, that Mr. Obama is motivated by a radical anti-imperialist agenda and that 'the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire' motivated the removal of the bust";[47] this led Financial Times columnist John Gapper to ironically tweet: "So is Boris Johnson against the European Union because he's part-Turkish?"[48]

On the actual content of what Mr. Johnson has said, the allegation about Churchill's bust being removed from the White House has been debunked as early as July 2012;[49] the bust of Churchill is currently placed outside the Treaty Room on the second floor of the house, where Obama claims to look at it every day.[50] Clearly, this is not enough for Boris — only once per day!? That commie, Empire-hating bastard! And this irrational fear of the old colonies rising up — which was exacerbated by Cold War hysteria about national liberation movements in South Africa — is exactly the type of fearmongering which led to Thatcher denouncing Nelson Mandela's ANC as "a typical terrorist organisation".[51] Indeed, one of those people fighting against the British in Kenya — as mentioned in passing by Nigel Farage in regards to defending Johnson's comments[52] — was his grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama, who was imprisoned and tortured by the British during Kenya's Mau Mau Uprising.[53] Even if Obama were to remove Churchill from the white house — which he patently did not — then one cannot really blame him for this.

Foreign Secretary

Appointment

First day in the Foreign Office.

“”In the light of the Foreign Secretary's display of chronic "foot-in-mouth" disease, when deciding on Cabinet positions, does the Prime Minister now regret that pencilling "FO" against his name should have been an instruction, not a job offer?

—Peter Dowd MP, displaying an excellent sense of humeur.[54]

Johnson was made Britain's Fine Foreign Secretary (FFS)[54] in July 2016 by Theresa May. This decision was made in order to make him a figurehead with little power.[55] and ensure that he would be out of the country most of the time, unable to mobilise backbenchers against her premiership and forces to take responsibility for problems related to Brexit, i.e. a whipping boy.[56] Since he is now PM, it's fair to say that this didn't go as planned.

Johnson's appointment was seen by many (including former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt) as a sick joke.[57] Labour MP Angela Eagle's was fighting her own to be leader of the Labour Party (and topple Jeremy Corbyn) at the time of the announcement; her live reaction and quick turn away from the camera to swear is very amusing.

Johnson has been criticised by journalists and foreign politicians for his statements about other countries, including:[58]

• Saying that the Commonwealth "supplies [Queen Elizabeth II] with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies". In this column, he described the Congo as follows: "No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird."
• On the effects of colonialism in Uganda: "If left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain."
• Equating Papua New Guinea with "orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing."

Which of course makes him an excellent choice to be Foreign Secretary...

Diplomacy Time™

Johnson's visit to Turkey in May 2016 was somewhat tense due to his having won a poetry competition about the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four months earlier, which went as follows:

“”There was a young fellow from Ankara Who was a terrific wankerer Till he sowed his wild oats With the help of a goat But he didn't even stop to thankera.[59]

Here is an interactive map of all the countries he has offended.

In a stopped clock moment in in December 2016, he said that Saudi Arabia was "puppeteering and playing proxy wars" throughout the Middle East, which caused a rift between him and Theresa May.[60] Despite this, Johnson supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and refused to block UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, stating there was no clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law by the Saudis in Yemen.[61]

In November 2016, Johnson told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe—a British-Iranian dual citizen serving a five-year prison sentence in Iran allegedly for "plotting to topple the Iranian government"[62] by running "a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran"[63]—had been "simply teaching people journalism".[64] These remarks appear to have put her at risk, prompting condemnation from politicians across the spectrum including Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, leading to calls for Boris Johnson to be sacked.[65] Zaghari-Ratcliffe had said that her visit had been made simply for her daughter to meet her grandparents. Johnson stated he had been misquoted and that nothing he said had justified Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sentence.[66]

In April 2017, Theresa May had to convince the EU that Britain wasn't preparing for war with Spain due to comments made by Johnson and other senior politicians.[67] In May 2017, during the 2017 United Kingdom general election, he apprehended by a woman in a Sikh gurdwara for discussing alcohol and ending tarrifs on Indian whiskey there (alcohol is forbidden in Sikhism).[68]

In September 2017 Johnson reiterated his "£350m a week" red bus lie in a Telegraph op-ed. This led Sir David Norgrove (chair of the non-partisan UK Statistics Authority) to call this a "clear misuse of official statistics".[69]

Johnson promised while in Northern Ireland that Brexit would leave the Irish border "absolutely unchanged", but declined to say how.[70] However, in February 2018, Johnson said Northern Ireland may have to accept border controls after Brexit,[71] which is absolutely a change.

In March 2018, Johnson apologised for his "inadvertent sexism" after being reprimanded by the Speaker of the House of Commons for calling Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry by her husband's surname (Nugee).[72]

In June 2018, Johnson was reported as having said "fuck business" when asked about corporate concerns regarding a hard Brexit.[73]

Prime Minister

Finally Boris got his heart's desire, replacing Theresa May as Prime Minister on 24 July 2019 after winning a leadership election against Jeremy Hunt. During his campaign he had promised both tax cuts and spending increases, which would normally be contradictory (less income plus more outgoings equals problems), so it wasn't exactly clear how he was going to run the country.[74] On entering office, he rapidly set about remodelling the government, sacking many loyal to May and Hunt.[75] It emerged that his plan for Brexit was to drop out without a deal, despite the bad effect that would have on British industry.[76]

He packed his cabinet with right-wingers and hardliners, such as Priti Patel (a former supporter of capital punishment) as Home Secretary, in charge of policing and immigration.[77] Other appointments included Thatcherite ex-banker Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer (replaced by Rishi Sunak in February 2020 after a falling out over special advisors), strong Brexiteer Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary, fellow leaver Michael Gove as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster (a sort of all-purpose fixer position), and another Leaver, Steve Barclay, remaining as Brexit secretary.[78]

His special advisers come partly from his time as Mayor of London, but also from pro-Brexit group Vote Leave, hard-right institutions like the TaxPayers' Alliance and the Legatum Institute, and from right-wing and right-libertarian publications like Guido Fawkes and Spiked. Dominic Cummings, formerly master strategist at Vote Leave, became his de facto chief of staff (a move which seemed to presage an early election). The head of his policy unit is Munira Mirza of Spiked magazine and before that communist-turned-libertarian magazine Living Marxism; she advised him on arts policy while he was Mayor. Johnson's political secretary is Danny Kruger, a former Tory parliamentary candidate who called for a "period of creative destruction in the public services", as well as working for Vote Leave, the Legatum Institute, as a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph, and a speechwriter for David Cameron before his 2010 election win. Ross Kempsell, a former journalist for TalkRadio and Guido Fawkes with no policy experience, is advising Johnson on public policy reform. Chloe Westley, formerly of the TaxPayers' Alliance, Vote Leave, and right-wing student organisation Turning Point UK, is another adviser.[79][80]

Boris Miscellanea

Musicians: can you see what's wrong in this picture?

"Your mileage may vary" when it comes to Boris Johnson. People view him as either an absolute legend or a complete arse biscuit. Often, the reasons for either conclusion are the same:[81]

• That hair! He's mesmerizing. His hair, that is, his mouth not so much.
• Publishing a piece by Simon Heffer on the Hillsborough disaster. Here is what Heffer had to say about Liverpool and its residents: Why can't the self-pitying paraplegics just look after themselves? Sheesh.[82] (He won't be sticking his mophead in Liverpool again any time soon.)
• "Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink, and the Tory party — the funkiest, most jiving party on Earth - is where it's happening."[83]
• Having his election strategist Lynton Crosby ban him from answering difficult questions.
• Confusing rugby and football. Though he did take down a German in the process. That game was also notable for him meeting actual Liverpudlian football manager Peter Reid who immediately started calling him a "fucking disgrace".[84]
• Hosting an episode of Have I Got News For You, and agreeing that the Tory Party will remain "stumbling on" as they have been for the previous 200 years.
• Having a fantastic "plummy" Old Etonian accent.
• Tory Sex God, famous for his string of affairs and illegitimate children.
• Being better than the police and "oiks"[85] and joyfully discussing the beating up of a tabloid journalist.[86]
• Publicly mocking Mitt Romney after he suggested the 2012 Summer Olympics would fail.[87] He also endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, but nine years later called him a mongrel for opposing Brexit.[88] Careful, Boris, CCHQ has spent a lot of time and money cultivating your loveable oaf persona.
• Being a natural-born U.S. citizen (born in New York City, therefore had[89] dual-citizenship), which means that for a time he could have theoretically, run for President of the United States.[90]
• Suggesting Iran should have nuclear weapons in 2006 to make the regime more pliable[91]
• Writing a book which describes the media as run by a Jewish cabal, and caricatures various ethnic minorities.[92]
• After being accused of isolationism[93] by SNP politician Ian Blackford, he refuted the accusation by proclaiming that only one party - the SNP - has nationalist in it's name. Ian Blackford then pointed out that the SNP does not have nationalist in it's name.[94]
• Personally saved a woman from three girls threatening her with an iron bar during his Mayor of London stint.[95]

Other Johnsons

• Boris' younger brother Jo Johnson, a Conservative MP. Is characterised as being like Boris but with no sense of humour whatsoever (and agrees with said characterisation). Jo has basically said that what Boris is doing is not in the "national interest"; hence why he’s standing down. Because Boris would expect him to support him, but Jo cannot do so because it’s not in the national interest. Let that sink in.[96]
• His father, Stanley, is worth a look.
• His sister Rachel Johnson stood as a candidate for strongly pro-EU rival party Change UK in 2019.[97]

The whole family also seem to be opposed to Brexit, which must have made for some awkward dinner table conversations recently. Especially around the fridge.[98]

See also

• George Galloway — Clowns to the left of me...
• Neil Hamilton — … jokers to the right
• Zac Goldsmith — Here I am, stuck in the middle with EU.
• Marmite - Like Boris, you either love it or hate it.
• Donald Trump - His long lost twin brother from Jesusland

External links

• The absolute madmen.
• Well of course you need to have "Ride of the Valkyries" on at full belt when hosing down protesters.

Videos

• Boris gets called a "cunt" on live TV — But he lacks the depth and warmth.

References

1. "Britain demands amusing Prime Minister" (Daily Mash)
2. "Mayor calls London Assembly members 'invertebrate jellies'". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
3. "Boris Johnson's Conservative party wins big in U.K. election" Via CBS Evening News.
4. Boris Johnson becomes PM with promise of Brexit by 31 October, The Guardian, 24 July 2019
5. Cowburn, Ashley, "Brexiteers condemned for not backing £350m NHS amendment to EU withdrawal bill", Independent 2.8.17. Well, he wanted it on a bus, not on a bill!
6. Thomas Penny. "Boris Johnson an Undiplomatic Pick as Britain’s Top Diplomat". Bloomberg. Retrieved on 15 July 2016.
7. "Brexit secretary David Davis resigns plunging government into crisis".
8. Travis, Alan (15 June 2019). "Britain's next PM will be decided by a 160,000-strong Tory membership that is 70% male, 97% white, 86% social class ABC1, 50% of whom read the Telegraph or the Daily Mail and who have an average age of 57, according to @ProfTimBale's presentation to an Oxford conference today.". twitter.com. Retrieved on 20 June 2019.
9. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/commons-vote-rejected-parliament-recess-boris-johnson-news-latest-today-a9121486.html
10. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2019/oct/19/brexit-deal-how-did-your-mp-vote-on-the-letwin-amendment
11. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/oct/17/eu-leaders-gather-for-summit-as-boris-johnson-scrambles-to-get-backing-for-brexit-deal-politics-live?page=with:block-5da860f48f08c78d1cb4e169#block-5da860f48f08c78d1cb4e169
12. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/sep/24/boris-johnsons-suspension-of-parliament-unlawful-supreme-court-rules-prorogue
13. Boris Johnson called gay men 'tank-topped bumboys' and black people 'piccaninnies' with 'watermelon smiles' by Adam Bienkov (Nov 10, 2019, 1:48 AM) Business Insider.
14. Conservative Glossary Critical Thinking (archived from November 14, 2019).
15. Harris, Robert (Robert___Harris). "I never really knew the meaning of the word "shameless" until I beheld the career of Boris Johnson https://t.co/vqzHOpXxsh". 27 Sep 2016, 21:01 UTC. Tweet.
16. About Boris, boris-johnson.com, accessed 23 August 2008.
17. "Pandora column: A youthful flirtation comes back to haunt Boris", by Henry Deedes The Independent, 9 August 2006. Retrieved on 23 August 2008.
18. Cameron's cronies in the Bullingdon class of '87, Daily Mail 13 February 2007
19. Dawar, Anil (4 April 2008). "Johnson admits using cocaine as a teenager ". The Guardian. Retrieved August 14 2018.
20. Gimson, Andrew (2012). Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson (second ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 342
21. Williams, Zoe. "Be afraid. Be very afraid". (1 May 2008). The Guardian.
22. Boris Johnson's media scrapes BBC News, 17 July 2007.
23. Boris Johnson sacked for lying over affair, by Andrew Porter and Nicholas Hellen, The Sunday Times, 14 November 2004.
24. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/23/johnson-under-pressure-over-friend-receiving-public-funds
25. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/17/arcuri-says-johnson-cast-her-aside-like-one-night-stand
26. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/18/boris-johnson-jennifer-arcuri-investigation-to-review-affair-with-another-woman
27. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jul/20/boris-johnson-mayor-2012-macintyre
28. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/15/no-censure-boris-johnson-city-hall-adviser
29. Ianucci, "From Trump to Boris, I wouldn’t write The Thick of It now – politics already feels fictional enough", New Statesman 6.9.16.
30. Booth, Robert, "Boris Johnson to approve ‘affordable’ London flats for rent at up to £2,800 ", Guardian (10/2/14 at 13:17 EDT, modified 5/7/16 at 6:41 EDT). Psst....he doesn't think that these flats are affordable at all.
31. Mortimer, Caroline, "EU referendum: Boris Johnson claims elites 'want to remain in Europe to keep hold of power'", Independent 4.25.16
32. Wright, Oliver, "What Boris Johnson said about EU security two years ago - and what he is saying now", Independent 5.9.16.
33. Stone, Jon, "EU referendum: Nigel Farage backtracks on Vote Leave's '£350m for the NHS' pledge hours after result", Independent 6.26.16. But they are men of the people! How can they be so deceitful??
34. Lewis, Kayleigh, "Boris Johnson becomes bookies' favourite to be next UK Prime Minister", Independent 6.24.16.
35. "Michael Gove and Theresa May head five-way Conservative race", BBC 30 June 2016.
36. Grice, Andrew, "Gove struggles to escape the fall-out from his treachery", Independent (1 July 2016, 4:30 BST).
37. "Boris Johnson's Brexit Victory Speech: Full Transcript", Newsweek (26 Junes 2016, 8:54 AM).
38. "How Boris Johnson's Leadership Dream Crumbled". Huffington Post. 30 June 2016. Retrieved on 1 July 2016.
39. "Boris Johnson Will NOT Run For Tory Leadership Election". Huffington Post. 30 June 2016. Retrieved on 1 July 2016.
40. Satlin, Alana Horowitz. (30 June 2016). "Boris Johnson Lambasted For Pulling Out Of Race To Become Prime Minister". Huffington Post. Retrieved on 1 July 2016.
41. "Whatever charisma is, I don't have it."
42. McTague, Tom, "Theresa May, the anti-Boris who just might be Britain's next PM", Politico (6/3/16, 5:34 AM CET).
43. "Alas, poor brick". Retrieved on 26 June 2016 – via The Economist.
44. Weaver, Matthew, "Boris Johnson: No Regrets Over Obama 'Part-Kenyan' Remarks", Guardian (5/11/16 at 6:23 EDT).
45. "Boris Johnson: UK and America can be better friends than ever Mr Obama… if we LEAVE the EU". thesun.co.uk. 22 April 2016. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
46. "Obama hits back at Boris Johnson's alleged smears". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
47. "Boris Johnson’s Essay on Obama and Churchill Touches Nerve Online". The New York Times. 23 April 2016. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
48. John Gapper (22 April 2016). "Tweet Number 723466615610814464". Twitter. "So is Boris Johnson against the European Union because he's part-Turkish? https://t.co/JnIX0EjujQ"
49. "Fact Check: The Bust of Winston Churchill". whitehouse.gov. 27 July 2012. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
50. Pickard, Jim. (22 April 2016). "Boris Johnson accused of racism in Obama row". Retrieved on 15 July 2016 – via Financial Times.
51. Smith, David (28 November 2010). "Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher: the meeting that never was". theguardian.com. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
52. "Obama Has A 'Grudge' Against Britain Because His 'Family Is Kenyan,' Says Farage". huffingtonpost.co.uk. 22 April 2016. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
53. Bowcott, Owen (3 December 2008). "Revealed: Britain's torture of Obama's grandfather". theguardian.com. Retrieved on 26 June 2016.
54. Watch on YouTube or read in Hansard.
55. References:
    • Hutton, Robert. "Boris Johnson Appointed U.K. Foreign Secretary in May Government". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
    • Stephen Bush (14 July 2016). "Sending Boris Johnson to the Foreign Office is bad for Britain, good for Theresa May". New Statesman. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
56. References:
    • Thomas Hüetlin (14 July 2016). "Boris Johnson als Außenminister: Der Prügelknabe" [Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary: The whipping boy]. Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 14 July 2016.
    • John Cassidy (13 July 2016). "The Huge Challenge Facing Theresa May". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
57. References:
    • Bonnie Malkin; Philip Oltermann; Tom Phillips (14 July 2016). "'Maybe the Brits are just having us on': the world reacts to Boris Johnson as foreign minister". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
    • Holton, Kate; Pitas, Costas (14 July 2016). "May builds new-look Brexit cabinet to steer EU divorce". Reuters. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
58. References:
    • "Boris Johnson is foreign secretary: The world reacts". BBC News. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
    • Boris Johnson: How Britain's new foreign secretary has insulted the world. BBC News. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2019
59. Douglas Murray. "Boris Johnson wins The Spectator’s President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition". (18 May 2016). The Spectator.
60. References:
    • "Boris Johnson accuses Saudi Arabia of 'playing proxy wars'". BBC News. 8 December 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
    • "Charted: The world's biggest arms importers". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
    • Dominiczak, Peter (8 December 2016). "Row over Saudi Arabia comments blows open rift between Theresa May and Boris Johnson". The Daily Telegraph.
    • "Boris Johnson's Saudi 'proxy wars' comment 'not UK's view'". BBC News. 8 December 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
61. References:
    • "Boris Johnson urged to back probe into international law violations in Yemen". The Independent. 21 September 2016.
    • "Boris Johnson defends UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia". The Guardian. 5 September 2016.
62. References:
    • "UK-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 'jailed on secret charges'". BBC News. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
    • Trew Cairo, Bel (10 October 2017). "British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe facing 16 more years in Iranian jail". The Times. Retrieved 12 October 2017. (Subscription needed)
63. Saeed Kamali Dehghan (6 November 2017). "Boris Johnson 'mistake' could harm case for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, say family". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
64. "Oral evidence: Oral Evidence from the Foreign Secretary November 2017, HC 538". House of Commons. UK Parliament. 1 November 2017. Q73. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
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66. References:
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68. "Boris Johnson criticised by Sikh woman over whisky comment in Gurdwara". BBC News. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
69. Asthana, Anushka (17 September 2017). "Boris Johnson left isolated as row grows over £350m post-Brexit claim". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
70. "How would Boris Johnson solve the Irish border problem?". New Statesman. 12 June 2019.
71. Maidment, Jack (28 February 2018). "Boris Johnson accuses Remainers of trying to use Irish border issue to stop the UK leaving the EU". The Daily Telegraph.
72. "Speaker tells Johnson off for 'sexism'". BBC News. 27 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
73. References:
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74. Do Boris Johnson's tax and spending plans add up?, BBC News, 5 Aug 2019
75. Johnson plots a high-risk Brexit with war on the doubters, Toby Helm, The Observer (via Guardian website), 28 July 2019
76. Boris Johnson has no intention of renegotiating Brexit deal, EU told, The Guardian, 5 Aug 2019
77. Cabinet audit: What does the appointment of Priti Patel as Home Secretary mean for policy?, New Statesman, 25 July 2019
78. Meet Boris Johnson’s new Cabinet, Politico.eu, 25 July 2019
79. Boris Johnson ushers in radical new era of special advisers, The Guardian, 5 Aug 2019
80. The Vote Leave gang now running Britain do not want to govern. They want to win, Matthew D'Ancona, The Guardian, 29 July 2019
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83. From 2001. Quoted in "The Boris Johnson guide to...", The Telegraph, 6 April 2008
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88. Weaver, Matthew, "Boris Johnson: No Regrets Over Obama 'Part-Kenyan' Remarks", Guardian (5/11/16 at 6:23 EDT). Boris is part-Turkish. Maybe his dislike for the EU can be explained by jealousy over Turkey not being allowed in?
89. U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson renounces U.S. citizenship by Jane Onyanga-Omara (8:21 a.m. ET Feb. 9, 2017 | Updated 7:09 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2017) USA Today.
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94. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/feb/05/pmqs-boris-johnson-corbyn-bbc-could-end-up-as-defunct-as-blockbuster-unless-it-adapts-to-digital-era-says-culture-secretary-nicky-morgan-live-news?page=with:block-5e3ab1728f0811db2faf1cdb#block-5e3ab1728f0811db2faf1cdb
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British Prime Ministers

Chamberlain (Con.) - Churchill (Con.) - Attlee (Lab.) - Churchill (Con.) - Eden (Con.) - Macmillan (Con.) - Douglas-Home (Con.) - Wilson (Lab.) - Heath (Con.) - Wilson (Lab.) - Callaghan (Lab.) - Thatcher (Con.) - Major (Con.) - Blair (Lab.) - Brown (Lab.) - Cameron (Con.) - May (Con.) - Johnson (Con.) (incumbent)