Boris Johnson

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Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (b.19 June 1964 in New York City), commonly known as Boris Johnson (born 19 June 1964), is a Member of Parliament and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Family

Johnson was born into a family of English Liberals in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. His father, Stanley, subsequently secured employment at the European Commission and moved his family in April 1973 to Uccle, Brussels, where Johnson attended the European School and learnt to speak French.

Boris initially became a journalist.

Politics

Following Michael Heseltine's retirement, Johnson decided to stand in his place as Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Henley, a Conservative Party safe seat in Oxfordshire, winning it comfortably in 2001. He was re-elected in 2005 with an increased majority. In 2008 he was elected Mayor of London (not the City of London, but the 'Greater London' metropolitan area), and resigned as a member of parliament. He was re-elected as Mayor in 2012, not stepping down until May 2016.

In August 2014 he stood as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in Middlesex at the 2015 general election, which he won, returning him to Parliament. In February 2016, Johnson endorsed the Vote Leave campaign in the "Out" campaign in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. After Theresa May became leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, she appointed Johnson Foreign Secretary in July 2016. During trips to theUnited States as Foreign Secretary, Johnson had repeated meetings with Donald Trump's adviser and speech-writer Stephen Miller, which were held off the White House grounds and kept quiet from May. During the meetings, Miller and Johnson "swapped speech-writing ideas and tips". In July 2018, three days after the cabinet had its meeting at Chequers to agree their Brexit strategy, Johnson, along with Brexit Secretary David Davis, resigned their cabinet posts in disagreement with the government's strategy. Becoming increasingly unpopular, on 24 May 2019, Theresa May, who had campaigned to "remain" in the EU, announced her resignation as party leader which took effect on 7 June.[1]

On 23 July 2019 the Conservative Party membership voted in Johnson as their new leader with 66% of the Party members' vote. He steered the government through the 2020-2021 coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

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