Written by Divija Vaish, a grade 11 student

Born 19 June, 1964, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and journalist, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is the leader of the Conservative Party (since 23 July, 2019) and is a Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (since 2015). He was also the representative of the constituency of Henley from 2001-2008.

Boris Johnson was educated at Eton, and went on to attend Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Classics. He first made his name as a newspaper reporter and editor. Johnson was fired from the Times of London for making up a quote, and went on to work for The Daily Telegraph where he quickly became Margaret Thatcher’s favourite columnist. He became the editor of The Spectator in 1999, and continued his journalism even after he entered politics. He was elected to the House of Commons from Henley, in 2001. He lost his leadership post after lying about a sex scandal with a Spectator columnist but returned to the front bench when David Camron was elected leader if the Conservative Party in 2005. He then resigned as editor of the Spectator.

In 1987, Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, but their marriage lasted less than a year and was annulled in 1993. Later that year, he married Marina Wheeler, a barrister and daughter of journalist and broadcaster, Sir Charles Wheeler and Indian, Dip Singh. They have two daughters- Lara Lettice and Cassia Peaches- and two sons, Milo Arthur and Theodore Apollo. In 2016, Johnson renounced his American citizenship (he was American by birth, born in Manhattan). In 2018, he and Wheeler announced that they were separating. He then began dating Carrie Symonds, and the two got engaged in late 2019. They have a son called Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, who was born in April this year.

On 26 August 2014, Johnson said he would stand as Conservative candidate for MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2015 General Election.  He won the election. He did not run for the 2016 London mayoral election. Labour candidate Sadiq Khan became the new London mayor.

During the 2016 campaign, Boris was in support of Brexit. When Theresa May was elected Prime Minister, she appointed him as Foreign Secretary despite being rivals. He left her cabinet after her Brexit agreements failed.

Johnson became the party leader in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. On 20 June, Johnson and Jeremy Hunt became the last two candidates in the election.  He became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 24 July 2019. The Conservatives won the 2019 United Kingdom general election on 13 December 2019. Johnson continued as Prime Minister.

As reported by The Hindu, Johnson has been invited by PM Modi to be the Chief Guest for the 2021 Republic Day celebrations.  However, this decision is yet to be confirmed by officials from the British High Commission and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). There has been a top-level visit since the U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit in February 2020 due to COVID-19. Also, with the number of COVID-19 cases in India crossing 9.5 million, there is still no clarity on the Republic Day celebrations in 2021.

On 27th November, the MEA had said that the two Prime Ministers had spoken about the difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic and the cooperation between the two countries about the vaccine’s development and manufacturing.

Cover image by: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Informal_meeting_of_foreign_affairs_ministers_(Gymnich).Round_table_Boris_Johnson(36913612672)_(cropped).jpg

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