The British Conservatives are electing a new leader now that Theresa May has left the post and that leader will be Boris Johnson, according to the party’s own website. Johnson has polled at 72 percent while contender Jeremy Hunt is at 28 percent, with apparently 71 percent of survey respondents saying they have already voted. If true, this means even if all 29 percent vote for Hunt he can’t win. Boris will be in. Britain’s Telegraph likewise admits that Johnson’s lead over Hunt looks “unassailable.”
Who Is Boris Johnson?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born June 19, 1964 in New York City to rich British parents. Johnson had dual American and British citizenship until 2016 when he became only British. He went on to attend prestigious schools including the European School of Brussels, Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.
Johnson kicked off his career as a journalist for The Times but got fired for making up a quotation. He moved on to The Daily Telegraph, reporting from Brussels and helped encourage an EU-skeptic point of view on the British conservative side. Johnson went on to be assistant editor at The Telegraph and helped edit The Spectator from 1999 to 2005. Johnson currently serves as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and has since 2015. Prior to that he was MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008. Johnson is economically and socially liberal but identifies as a “one-nation conservative” and tends to favor nationalist policies.
- Advertisement -Johnson is perhaps most well-known for serving two terms as the Mayor of London from 2008 to 2012 and 2012 to 2015, where he accomplished various things including banning alcohol on most of the city’s public transit, helping London’s financial district and introducing new Routemaster buses.
Johnson left his post as mayor a year after his 2015 election as MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip and campaigned hard for Brexit in 2016, earning him a spot as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by then-PM Theresa May. He didn’t like how May handled Brexit, however, and left in 2018.
Pro-Boris voters say he is charming, funny, energetic and politically savvy, while anti-Boris opinions accuse him of being spoiled, elitist, corrupt and racially insensitive.
