Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022.

After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement but failing to win parliamentary support, Johnson called a snap general election to be held in December 2019, in which he won a landslide victory.

[1] In the Partygate scandal it was found that numerous parties had been held at 10 Downing Street during national COVID-19 lockdowns, and COVID-19 social distancing laws were breached by 83 individuals, including Johnson, who in April 2022 was issued with a fixed penalty notice.

[25][26] Charlotte had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised with depression, after which Johnson and his siblings were sent back to the UK in 1975 to attend Ashdown House, a preparatory boarding school in East Sussex.

After leaving Eton, Johnson went on a gap year to Australia, where he taught English and Latin at Timbertop, an Outward Bound-inspired campus of Geelong Grammar, an independent boarding school.

[46] Matriculating in late 1983,[47] he was one of a generation of Oxford undergraduates who dominated British politics and media in the early 21st century, including Cameron, William Hague, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Boles.

[66] Scandal erupted when Johnson wrote an article for the newspaper on the archaeological discovery of Edward II's palace, having invented a quote which he falsely attributed to the historian Colin Lucas, his godfather.

[73] He wrote articles about euromyths: that Brussels had recruited sniffer dogs to ensure that all manure smelt the same,[74] they were about to dictate the acceptable curve of British bananas,[b] limit the power of their vacuum cleaners[76][c] and order women to return their old sex toys.

"[80] According to one of his biographers, Sonia Purnell, – who was Johnson's Brussels deputy[72] – he helped make Euroscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas it had been associated previously with the Left.

[138] In August 2004, he backed unsuccessful impeachment procedures against Prime Minister Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" regarding the war,[139] and in December 2006 described the invasion as "a colossal mistake and misadventure".

[152] In October, Howard ordered Johnson to apologise publicly in Liverpool for publishing a Spectator article – anonymously written by Simon Heffer – which said the crowds at the Hillsborough disaster had contributed to the incident and that Liverpudlians had a predilection for reliance on the welfare state.

[175][176] Johnson's campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the AEC Routemaster.

[206] However, he did reverse several other measures implemented by Livingstone: ending the city's oil deal with Venezuela, abolishing The Londoner newsletter, and scrapping the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, which was reinstated three years later.

[209] He was subsequently accused of failing to publish an independent report on air pollution commissioned by the Greater London Authority, which revealed the city breached legal limits on nitrogen dioxide levels.

[212] He introduced a public bicycle scheme that had been mooted by Livingstone's administration; colloquially known as "Boris Bikes", the part privately financed system was a significant financial loss but proved popular.

[257][258] Johnson was close friends with American entrepreneur[259] and model Jennifer Arcuri, with The Sunday Times describing him as a regular visitor to her flat,[260] and implying they were in a sexual relationship.

[365][366] In April 2019, the Independent Press Standards Organisation ruled that a claim in a 6 January 2019 article in The Daily Telegraph, "The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for", authored by Johnson,[367] that a no-deal Brexit was "by some margin preferred by the British public" was false, and "represented a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article in breach of Clause 1 (i)" of its guidelines, and required that a correction be published.

[386][387] On 12 September, Johnson denied lying to the Queen over suspension of the Parliament, while a Belfast Court rejected claims that his Brexit plans would have a negative impact on Northern Ireland's peace policy.

[391] Despite government opposition, the Benn Act, a bill to block a no-deal exit, passed the Commons on 4 September 2019, causing Johnson to propose a general election on 15 October.

[393] In October 2019, following bilateral talks between Johnson and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar,[394] the UK and EU agreed to a revised deal, which replaced the backstop with a new Northern Ireland Protocol.

[419][needs update] Reuters reported that scientists were critical of Johnson both for acting too slowly to stop the spread of COVID-19 and for mishandling the government's response;[420] Politico quoted Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty as saying that an earlier initial lockdown would have significantly lowered the death toll.

[488] In November 2021 Johnson backed a motion to block the suspension of Owen Paterson, a Conservative MP found to have abused his position by the independent standards commissioner after undertaking paid lobbying.

The BBC then reported, however, that an official complaint and subsequent investigation into Pincher, while he was at the Foreign Office (July 2019 to February 2020), had confirmed his misconduct, and that Johnson had been made aware at that time.

[546][547] On 5 July 2022, Sunak and Javid resigned within minutes of each other,[548] followed over the next 24 hours by 11 other ministers, as well as Conservative MPs from parliamentary private secretary and other Government positions;[549] other backbenchers also withdrew their support for Johnson.

[644][645][646] [I am] free-market, tolerant, broadly libertarian (though perhaps not ultra-libertarian), inclined to see the merit of traditions, anti-regulation, pro-immigrant, pro-standing on your own two feet, pro-alcohol, pro-hunting, pro-motorist and ready to defend to the death the right of Glenn Hoddle to believe in reincarnation.

[662] In 2019, reacting to reports in The Sun, that Johnson had told cabinet colleagues he was "basically a Brexity Hezza", former deputy leader of the Conservative Party Michael Heseltine wrote: "I fear that any traces of liberal conservatism that still exist within the prime minister have long since been captured by the rightwing, foreigner-bashing, inward-looking view of the world that has come to characterise his fellow Brexiters.

[668] In 2019 and 2020 Johnson expressed support for the UK to have "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2050[669] and spoke about increasing ambition for mitigating climate change through carbon capture and storage[670] and a renewable energy transition.

[673] It was reported in 2022 that Johnson was convinced of the scientific consensus on climate change following a briefing by the chief scientist of the Met Office in January 2020, and subsequently made the issue a priority for his government.

[664] According to TheyWorkForYou as of 2022[update], Johnson has "generally voted against" what it described as "key measures to prevent climate change"[clarification needed] while an MP,[674] and other sources confirm this.

[779] Johnson's mother is the granddaughter of Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer and a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US,[780] and Pennsylvania-born Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a translator of Thomas Mann.