Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is the only British politician known
universally by a first name. Boris bikes Boris the blonde bombshell Boris the
buffoon even the Prime Minister knows it Boris is Boris. When it comes to mr.
Johnson a surname is optional but who is the man beneath the hair?
Much like president Trump britain's Foreign Secretary has acquired a reputation as a
maverick yet his background places him firmly in the establishment
Son of a diplomat later turned MEP Boris was born in New York City fittingly he
possessed the multiculturalism embraced by the city with his father's Turkish
roots but it wasn't long before the child who wanted to be king of the world
came home and was inducted into a series of elite British institutions
after attending the same primary school as Ed Miliband
he went to Eton and Christchurch College Oxford he was Union president and part
of the notorious Bullingdon Club with many others seemingly born to rule
Briitain unless lept into the lifeboat jumped on me ERM and left the rest you know
manage as best they could - there was absolutely no attempt to give a kind of
lead or unify the community during that time and I think other countries particularly
the Dutch felt very strongly about that. - His career as a journalist didn't begin
well he was fired from The Times for making up a quote. Fittingly his career
took off in earnest in Brussels he was a young and carefree - his critics say
careless - journalist for The Telegraph between 1989 and 1994 nestled in the
bosom of the Eurocrats he filed stories that blazed a trail he delighted his
bosses and his readers peddling facts and the odd fiction about Europe
Boris's Brussels was the land of straight bananas and prawn cocktail crisps bans
and over 20 years later he would deploy the very same stories as a weapon of
choice in the Brexit battle but he wasn't content to continue as an
onlooker politics beckoned he contested Clwyd South in 1997 but even the blonde
bombshell couldn't hold back Tony Blair's New Labour landslide he lost
undeterred he continued to build his profile in newspapers and on British
panel shows perfecting his bumbling blond persona
They produced the jacket before I'd written the book
By 1999 he took the editorship of The Spectator magazine promising its owners
he would abandon his political ambitions for the time being in 2001 he was
elected the MP for Henley socially he was liberal voting to repeal section 28
and supporting the gender recognition Act in 2004
And I have some perfectly respectable neighbors good bourgeois types who I work without giving the game
way or naming them you know whenever they're sitting in it would even got
nothing else to do they roll up a spliff and and quietly smoking together
Until 2008 he held various shadow ministerial roles under the leadership of Michael
Howard and David Cameron but he was fired by Michael Howard after lying
about an affair
- Do you think its unfair that you've been removed from the front bench?
All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds
An unmissable opportunity loomed, the London mayoralty.
A theme was emerging Boris rather likes to have his cake and eat it too
He managed to woo both traditional Tories and erstwhile labour supporters of red
Ken Livingstone many weren't voting conservative they were voting for Boris
some accused him of taking credit for projects started by his predecessor Ken
Livingstone an London's sponsored bicycle scheme was dubbed Boris bikes regardless
of the sponsor on the side he was adamantly Pro EU and even talked of Turkish
succession to the Union amid the London riots his response was seen by some as
lackluster and a low point of his time as mayor it led to heavy criticism on
the city streets
His plans for Boris Island never got off the ground
critics say he made London unaffordable and loosened planning laws
- It didn't have the team in place Yet he remained an immensely popular figure and
even getting stuck on a zip wire couldn't spoil his party. As his star
rose so too did new questions over his leadership ambitions but to become
leader first Boris needed to become an MP once again which would mean having
his cake and eating it in fact he denied he would return to
Parliament during his mayoral term 17 times in one interview months later he
was MP for Oxbridge and South Ruislip and still mayor of London
When in 2015 David Cameron made the surprise announcement he wouldn't stand for a
third term the door to number 10 appeared to open just a crack
- It is more likely that as I say I won't be reincarnated as a disused fridge...
or decapitated by a flying frisbee
He needed to get his foot in. David Cameron had promised to hold a
referendum on Britain's membership with the EU it was to have far-reaching
consequences not least for Boris himself he agonized over his position and had
written drafts of both remain and leave column for The Daily Telegraph he'd
enjoyed the odd cheeky sideswipe at the EU in the past
- Cardiff council decided to interpret the animal by-products regulation 2002 in such a way as to
forbid people from recycling tea bags now that is a classic example in my view
of the confluence of EU legislation with
overzealous British implementation - But he'd also extolled the
benefits of mass immigration Boris met with his friend arch Brexiteer
Michael Gove on the eve of the campaign they joined forces to launch the Leave campaign
and it's my view that after 30 years of
writing about this we have a chance actually to do something I have a chance
actually to do something I would like to see a new relationship based more on
trade on cooperation but as I say without with much less of this
supranational element so that's where I'm coming from
It was bloody the cabinet was split down the middle and Boris was accused of running a campaign
based on half-truths and outright lies he flipped his position on Turkey
joining the EU warning it would give millions of migrants rights to work in the UK
This stuff that you've got plastered on side of the bus the £350m
pounds a week goes to the EU the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that's
a misleading figure the UK statistics authority says that's a misleading
figure isn't it the case that you're cherry-picking
and even manipulating stats to suit you - What it represents is the global sum
that we send to Brussels - It doesn't take into account rebate?
What is unquestionably true is that we write out a cheque for £20billion a year to Brussels over
which we have no control - He was in his element traveling the country in his big
red bus waving pasties clutching British asparagus and kissing English caught
fish at Billingsgate fish market - It's probably gonna be leave, he had something to
do with it I think yeah
A lot of people know the realities of the EU in Cornwall and
what we get from it so I don't think it would change it all that much Oh an
Are you an undecided voter? - I was who knows now Has he persuaded you? I think he just might have done
At 3:25 in the morning Sheffield declared for leave Durham
Birmingham Northumberland followed Boris was vindicated but the country was
bitterly divided his fellow Etonian David Cameron's career was over within
hours he'd left Downing Street with his wife and children the ball had come
loose from the back of the scrum - It looked like a two horse race between
quiet remainer and Home Secretary Theresa May and Boris Johnson the brash
face of the leave campaign but Boris had underestimated his campaign mate in a
shock announcement Michael Gove said he would also run for PM he didn't believe
Boris was up to the job - I have concluded that person cannot be me
The job slipped from his grasp Britain's new prime minister was not a blonde bombshell but
the first female PM since Margaret Thatcher Boris appeared vanquished but
only briefly
When mrs. May announced her new cabinet appointments there was only one that
dominated the headlines bumbling Boris was to be foreign secretary Britain's
representative to the world Michael Gove was left out in the cold while Boris was
sent around the world some said as far away from Downing Street as number 10 could get him
- But you have an unusually long history of wild exaggerations and
frankly outright lies that I think you foreign secretaries have prior to this job -
- I appreciate the first amendment and your right to free speech
This is what you would do if you were in my place.
May meanwhile was gearing up for the biggest
mistake of her Premiership she misread the country and underestimated her
opponent Jeremy Corbyn by calling an election. Conservatives lost their
majority and Theresa May her authority
with the door to number 10 opening a crack again bumbling Boris yet again tripped himself up on the doormat
- You know she was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it
He had to clarify these comments as they were incorrect
And could worsen the situation of it an Iranian British woman currently held in Tehran
- The UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she
was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit
- Why won't you apologize properly to Nazanin's family and are you now willing to meet them?
Well as I've said repeatedly I said in the House of Commons yesterday
I'm very happy to meet the family and I'm mr. Ratcliffe I'm in fact I think
happy to see him before I go to Iran in the course of the next few weeks
you