Boris Johnson cuts a controversial figure in British politics

Boris Johnson (birth name Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson) is the current Prime Minister of the UK and Leader of the Conservative Party.

As a young man, Boris Johnson attended Eton College and he studied the Classics at Oxford, he was prominent at the college and was elected into the position of President of Oxford Union in 1986. After graduating he began his career as a Brussels correspondent before becoming a political columnist for The Daily Telegraph. By 1999 he had become the editor of The Spectator, a position that he remained in until 2005, during the same period he was elected into the role of MP for Henley and began serving as a a junior shadow minister. In 2008 Boris Johnson became the Mayor of London; a role that he stepped down from in 2015 around the time that he became a very visible proponent of the ‘Vote to Leave’ movement. Whilst in his role as mayor Boris Johnson was involved in overseeing the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, a new cycle scheme and the banning of the consumption of alcohol on most of the city’s public transport network. Johnson served as the Foreign Secretary for two years at the start of Theresa May’s prime ministership but resigned. In 2019 he as responsible for leading the Conservative Party in the largest parliamentary victory since 1987. The UK withdrew from the EU under his premiership and entered its transition period.

Boris Johnson is the first Prime Minister in the history of the UK to have been born outside of the British territories. Key moments so far have been the choice to leave the EU and his management of the coronavirus crisis which has seen him close many venues and businesses. In March he was himself diagnosed with COVID-19 and was eventually admitted to hospital.