Boris Johnson | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 19 June 1964 (age 59) New York City, US |
| Political orientation | Imperialism Liberalism |
| Political party | Conservative and Unionist Party |
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British Conservative politician, and a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He replaced Theresa May as Prime Minister on July 24 2019 before he was succeeded himself by Liz Truss on September 6 2022.[1] Johnson is best known for facilitating a Brexit deal, and the Partygate scandal where he threw a party during the COVID-19 pandemic whilst the rest of the country was in lockdown.[2]
Political Career
Member of Parliament
He became the Conservative MP for Henley in June 2001, and served in the post until June 2008.[1]
He was Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from May 2015 to June 2023.[1]
He served as Foreign Secretary from 13 July 2016 to 9 July 2018.[1]
Premiership
Boris Johnson was Prime Minister from 24 July 2019 to 6 September 2022.[1]
Covid-19
From the beginning of the pandemic Johnson showed reluctance to pursue a public health plan, preferring to promote the wishes of the bourgeois who wanted to keep their employees working and risk their lives. The UK went into lockdown in May 2020 and the government brought in social distancing laws, many of which were draconian measures targeting the working class disproportionally. The police were given new powers, including the ability to issue fines of up to £10,000 or even jailtime for anyone organising the now outlawed social gatherings, unsurprisingly the working class were the main targets of these laws, not the upper classes.[2]
On June 19 2020 Johnson attended a birthday party in 10 Downing Street among other parties, these parties were concealed from the public and when questioned about them Johnson and his associates lied about their existence repeatedly. Despite breaking his own laws, when Johnson finally admitted to the crime he still claimed that he didn't believe he had done anything wrong and ignored mounting demands for his resignation.[3] Johnson, Sunak and 47 other members of the government received a mere £50 fine each for breaking their own covid legislation, a sharp contrast to the massive fines paid by the working class for breaking lockdown rules far less blatantly.[2]
Post-Premiership
Since his resignation Johnson has remained under fire for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and his blatant disregard for his own rules,[4] quitting as an MP in June 2023.[4] Johnson received a six figure sum from the Daily Mail tabloid newspaper to write a weekly column for them, so far he has written about his dog Dilyn, the Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerburg row and his love of cheddar cheese.[4] As well as making around £4.2m from speaking events, Johnson struck a £510,000 deal with HarperCollins in January 2023 to pen a memoir.[4] In October 2023 Johnson announced his plans to join the far-right news outlet GB News as a presenter.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "The Rt Hon Boris Johnson" (2023). GOV.UK.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Proletarian writers (2022-04-25). "Partygate again: Is Boris really about to suffer ‘death by a thousand cuts’?" Proletarian. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
- ↑ Roger Mckenzie (2022-01-25). "Police launch investigation into Downing Street's lockdown-busting parties" Morning Star. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Adam Forrest (2023-10-27). "Boris Johnson reveals he is joining GB News" The Independent.