Theresa May’s had her leaving party, and now it’s be time for the age of Boris. The eccentric, former London-mayor is set to be the leader of one of the world’s most powerful countries. So who is he?
Early life
Johnson in fact has British royal blood. His father, Stanley Johnson, is said to have ancestral ties going back to King George II of Great Britain.
The Johnson family
Johnson had his early education at Eton College, the most elite and exclusive boarding school in the UK.
He excelled at Eton in English and Classics studies, and became the secretary of the school’s debating society, as well as editor of the school’s paper.
Oxford
Considering he was a bit of an overachiever, it’s hardly surprising he landed a scholarship to study at Oxford University – one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Oxford University, Balliol College
He studied ‘Literae Humaniores’, a four-year course based on studying classics. He didn’t go for the good ol’ PPE, politics, philosophy and economics like a lot of other prime ministers opt for, David Cameron being one.
It’s at Oxford where Johnson gets engaged an aristocrat, Allegra Mostyn-Own and when he also joined the infamous Bullingdon Club.
The Bullingdon Club, of which Cameron was also a member, is a super exclusive, all-male club in Oxford University. It’s dubbed as a dining and drinking club, though it’s really where the super-rich go to commit vandalism.
A former-recruiter for the club back in the Johnson and Cameron days revealed many grizzly details to The Guardian:
“One incident she recalled at Magdalen College involved “a large galleried room that had just been refurbished with expensive wood panelling. Every piece of furniture that could have been broken was broken, every liquid sprayed around the room, the panelling was cracked, and everything was piled in a heap in the middle of the room. The college door to Magdalen was smashed to pieces.”
Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. […] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”
Bullingdon Club
Both Johnson and Cameron were members of this club, it’s one of the most socially elite societies in university culture.
Journalism
During his time as a journalist he got fired ‘twice’, both times for the same reason.
On two occasions, the young journalist made up quotations to make his stories more juicy, on both occasions he was caught.
During his time in journalism, he’s hailed as the originator of the ‘euromyth’ journalist genre, what this means is that he was strengthening anti-E.U. ideas.
Politics
It wasn’t until 2001 where Johnson got into politics, being elected as a Member of Parliament for the Conservatives.
Johnson and Cameron have actually had a bit of a rivalry ever since the two met at Eton College, they had a competitive nature, of which extended to politics.
Cameron got the PM bragging rights first obviously.
Fast forward to 2008 and he became the mayor of London, a high up role in British politics.
Under Theresa May he also became foreign secretary.
Boris Johnson once said “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
Thanks to the crashing and burning of May’s political reputation and career though, Boris is now in line to become prime minister.
He was a loud voice in the Brexit ‘Leave’ campaign, with everyone now wanting Brexit to just be over, he may just be the man to get things sorted.
The landscape of British politics is pretty rough at the moment, no one can agree, everyone wants different things. It’s hoped that Johnson can unite the Tory party.
Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News Mr Johnson was “best placed” to unite the party as he had won the backing of more than 50% of MPs in the first stage of the race.
And Communities Secretary James Brokenshire told Channel 4 News that Mr Johnson was the “right person to get a deal with Europe” on the terms of the UK’s exit and “make it stick” in Parliament – which has rejected Mrs May’s agreement three times.
