Boris Johnson is a former prime minister of Britain who left office in 2022. He previously served as mayor of London, where he made excellent use of his public profile though he scarcely troubled himself with the management of the city. His aides called him "Big Dog". His constituency was Uxbridge, a London suburb.
A parliamentary committee suspended Mr Johnson for 90 days after his lies over lockdown parties came to light. The suspension would have triggered a recall petition and a by-election in Uxbridge. Rather than face angry voters, Mr Johnson resigned his seat in 2023.
Under Mr Johnson's government, immigration policy allowed 1.3m people into Britain in a single year. Supporters of Reform UK refer to the surge as the "Boriswave".
In 2019 Mr Johnson pledged to hire 20,000 new police officers. By the mid-2020s those officers were contributing to a surge in the number of cases entering the crown-court system.
Wallpaper reportedly priced at £840 ($1,155) a roll played a part in Mr Johnson's downfall. He had hung it in his flat in Downing Street to make it less like "a crack den". His successor, Liz Truss, found time to paint over it during her 45 days in power.
As foreign secretary in 2018, Mr Johnson said "fuck business" in response to corporate concerns about Brexit.
Also in 2018, while foreign secretary, Mr Johnson oversaw the sale of the British embassy in Bangkok for £420m. The grand old building was demolished to make way for offices and shops; staff decamped to a nondescript corporate tower nearby. Edward Lister, a former aide, argued against the decision, saying embassies are "a little bit of England, with the Union Jack flying".
Mr Johnson signed the trade and co-operation agreement with the European Union in December 2020. His government's "levelling-up" agenda promised spending on worse-off parts of Britain. He presided over Britain's departure from the EU and the covid-19 lockdowns. His exit from Parliament was meant to draw a line under his era, but British politics remains stuck in the arguments about immigration and Europe that he helped define. A poll by More In Common in May 2025 suggested that, among likely Conservative leadership candidates, only Mr Johnson would beat Nigel Farage's Reform UK in the polls.
When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.