History UsefulNotes / BorisJohnson

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Many, many people have said that he has very carefully ''cultivated'' his famous air of amiable distraction. Of course, many other people have claimed that underneath that is just another "blithering idiot." So far as there is a consensus, it seems to be that Boris is a great deal cleverer than he pretends to be, but not as clever as he thinks he is - and, worse, is lazy and thus ill-informed.

Ironically, while (at least some) people felt Johnson had permanently settled [[UsefulNotes/WithEuropeButNotOfIt the "European question"]] that had ended the careers of so many Conservative prime ministers before him (UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan, UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, Thatcher, Major, Cameron, and May had all foundered over Europe in one way or another), he ultimately ended up losing power thanks to the ''other'' thing that had dogged his predecessors, sleaze. The first step towards his downfall came in November 2021, when he attempted to change the parliamentary standards rules in what many saw as an obvious effort to get ally Owen Paterson acquitted for a donations scandal, resulting in a massive backlash that forced Johnson to back down.[[note]]Paterson subsequently resigned from Parliament in protest of what he called an unfair investigation, leading to his theoretically ultra-safe seat, North Shropshire, going to the Liberal Democrats in a subsequent by-election. Two other heavy by-election defeats the following summer, at Wakefield (where Labour reclaimed one of its "heartland" seats the Tories flipped in 2019, which was crucial to that victory) and Tiverton and Honiton (''another'' safe Conservative constituency that went Liberal Democrat), further imperilled Johnson's position. While he wasn't personally implicated in the events that resulted in the Tory incumbents vacating those seats (Imran Ahmad Khan was expelled from the party, then resigned as MP for Wakefield, after being convicted of sexual assault, while Neil Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after he was caught viewing pornography ''in the House of Commons''), they reinforced the image of the Tories as sleaze-ridden -- something they had done a lot to shake off during Cameron's and May's tenures -- at the worst possible time for Johnson.[[/note]] He later became embroiled in a more serious controversy when it was revealed that during the pandemic, Johnson violated health restrictions on public gatherings by hosting parties in 10 Downing Street and other government buildings. Known as "Partygate", the scandal made him the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office when he received a fixed penalty notice in April 2022 for breach of COVID-19 regulations. The publishing of a subsequent report on the scandal and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction led to a confidence vote among Conservative [=MPs=] on 6 June 2022, in which 211 supported Johnson and 148 opposed him.[[note]]For perspective, a similar intra-party confidence vote on Theresa May's leadership in December 2018 saw 200 [=MPs=] supporting her and 117 against. For both leaders, the results were bad enough that other people saw them as terminally damaging to their administrations, even if, alone, they failed to oust them.[[/note]]

He was replaced as PM by the winner of the September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, UsefulNotes/LizTruss, the UK's third woman to hold the office, two days before the passing of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. However, in October, after Truss herself was driven from office after a short and disastrous tenure, Johnson attempted to mount a comeback and declared his candidacy for the next leadership election. This was met with ambivalence among the Tory electorate: some thought he could get the country back on track since he could claim a mandate through his victory at the last general election, while others felt his presence would remind the public of his various failings, which would just weaken the Tories even further after the Truss debacle. Ultimately, he withdrew from consideration despite previously declaring that he had the 100 votes necessary to stand -- a claim that was generally met with scepticism. Consequently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak was acclaimed as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Many, many people have said that he has very carefully ''cultivated'' his famous air of amiable distraction. Of course, many other people have claimed that underneath that is just another "blithering idiot."

-->-- '''Johnson''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3EdPPezvzM in an appearance]] in ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}''

->''"You can't rule out the possibility that beneath the carefully constructed veneer of a blithering idiot there lurks a blithering idiot."''

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), sometimes nicknamed "[=BoJo=]" and commonly known simply as "Boris," is a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom British]] Conservative politician, former [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 2019 to 2022, the Mayor of UsefulNotes/{{London}} from 2008 to 2016, Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023 (and for Henley from 2001 to 2008), the Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018, as well as a journalist, novellist, historian, classicist and TV personality. Easily recognizable by his unruly mop of blond hair, general air of amiable distraction, and tendency to talk like somebody out of Creator/PGWodehouse. He is additionally one of the most ethnically mixed high-ranking global politicians of the 21st century, being not only UsefulNotes/{{Engl|and}}ish, but additionally UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench, UsefulNotes/{{German|y}},[[note]]He is a descendant of King George II through an illegitimate daughter of a prince of Württemberg. Through that line he is a sixth cousin twice removed of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and a fifth cousin twice removed from the line of her grandmother, who was also from a morganatic branch of the Württembergs.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n, and UsefulNotes/{{Turk|ey}}ish.[[note]]His great-grandfather was a journalist who was lynched for writing about UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, and had his grandfather's surname not been changed due to the Ottomans allying with UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Johnson could have been Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Kemal. There is speculation that this is even the source of his hair color, as Ali Kemal was apparently part-Circassian and from a village where many people used to look like Boris.[[/note]] He's the whole [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar Crimean War]] in one messy blond package!

He was born in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to British parents Stanley and Charlotte Johnson, giving him dual [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]–UK citizenship; he renounced the former in 2015.[[note]]Being born in the United States made him eligible to run to be [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates president]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen had he wished]]. After selling a home he owned in Britain, he discovered that, because he was born in the United States, he was subject to a US law requiring any citizen, anywhere, to pay income taxes on sales profits even though he had not lived there since he was a child; in disgust, he paid the tax, then promptly renounced his citizenship.[[/note]] Until the age of eight, he had severely impaired hearing due to a condition known as "glue ear" and was "a subdued child" before it was surgically corrected. He attended Eton College and read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1987 he went to work for ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'', but its editor fired him for the false attribution of a quotation. In 1989, he became the UsefulNotes/{{Brussels}} correspondent, and later political columnist, for ''The Daily Telegraph'', then became editor of ''Magazine/TheSpectator'' magazine, ''then'' came to major fame with an appearance on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou''. Ian Hislop had a transcript of a phone call in which Johnson agreed to help an old school friend of his beat up another journalist, which Hislop used to mock Johnson, something Johnson hadn't been expecting. Following this, he claimed in his column that the show was entirely scripted. Later, he reappeared on the show to retract this, reassuring "all the little children out there" that the show was indeed entirely spontaneous, and admitting that he'd agreed to come back [[MoneyDearBoy purely for the money]]. He also appeared later as a repeat guest host.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), sometimes nicknamed "[=BoJo=]" and commonly known simply as "Boris," is a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom British]] Conservative politician, former [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 2019 to 2022, the former Mayor of UsefulNotes/{{London}} from 2008 to 2016, Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023 (and formerly for Henley from 2001 to 2008), the former Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018, as well as a journalist, novellist, historian, classicist and TV personality. Easily recognizable by his unruly mop of blond hair, general air of amiable distraction, and tendency to talk like somebody out of Creator/PGWodehouse. He is additionally one of the most ethnically mixed high-ranking global politicians of the 21st century, being not only UsefulNotes/{{Engl|and}}ish, but additionally UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench, UsefulNotes/{{German|y}},[[note]]He is a descendant of King George II through an illegitimate daughter of a prince of Württemberg. Through that line he is a sixth cousin twice removed of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and a fifth cousin twice removed from the line of her grandmother, who was also from a morganatic branch of the Württembergs.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n, and UsefulNotes/{{Turk|ey}}ish.[[note]]His great-grandfather was a journalist who was lynched for writing about UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, and had his grandfather's surname not been changed due to the Ottomans allying with UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Johnson could have been Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Kemal. There is speculation that this is even the source of his hair color, as Ali Kemal was apparently part-Circassian and from a village where many people used to look like Boris.[[/note]] He's the whole [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar Crimean War]] in one messy blond package!

He was born in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to British parents Stanley and Charlotte Johnson, giving him dual [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]–UK citizenship; he renounced the former in 2015.[[note]]Being born in the United States made him eligible to run to be [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates president]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen had he wished]]. After selling a home he owned in Britain, he discovered that, because he was born in the United States, he was subject to a US law requiring any citizen, anywhere, to pay income taxes on sales profits even though he had not lived there since he was a child; he disgustedly paid the tax, then promptly renounced his citizenship.[[/note]] Until the age of eight, he had severely impaired hearing due to a condition known as "glue ear" and was "a subdued child" before it was surgically corrected. He attended Eton College and read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1987 he went to work for ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'', but was fired by its editor for the false attribution of a quotation. In 1989, he became the UsefulNotes/{{Brussels}} correspondent, and later political columnist, for ''The Daily Telegraph'', then became editor of ''Magazine/TheSpectator'' magazine, ''then'' came to major fame with an appearance on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou''. Ian Hislop had a transcript of a phone call in which Johnson agreed to help an old school friend of his beat up another journalist, which Hislop used to mock Johnson, something which Johnson hadn't been expecting. Following this, he claimed in his column that the show was entirely scripted. Later, he reappeared on the show to retract this, reassuring "all the little children out there" that the show was indeed entirely spontaneous, and admitting that he'd agreed to come back [[MoneyDearBoy purely for the money]]. He also appeared later as a repeat guest host.

After being elected to Parliament for Henley in 2001,[[note]]When Johnson became editor of ''The Spectator'' in 1999, he had promised its owner Conrad Black that he would not stand to be an MP, a promise he broke during the general election two years later. During his campaign, he told voters that if he was elected he would resign as editor of ''The Spectator''. Yet again, he failed to keep his word.[[/note]] Johnson served as a shadow junior minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron. He was fired from his position as editor of ''The Spectator'' in 2005, after management became dissatisfied with his lacklustre performance. He resigned from the House of Commons in 2008 after he was elected mayor of London. He was re-elected as mayor in 2012.

In the 2015 national election, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; as a result, he did not seek re-election as mayor the following year. He became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in the 2016 referendum on membership of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion. When David Cameron resigned following Vote Leave's victory, Johnson quickly announced his intention to run for the now vacant post of prime minister. Although he quickly became the favourite to win, he pulled out of the leadership election before it even started when his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove betrayed him and decided to run himself, claiming that Johnson would not be a capable PM. The erstwhile Remain supporter UsefulNotes/TheresaMay won, then (in an apparent case of needing or wanting to keep her enemies closer than her friends) appointed him Foreign Secretary after the referendum; he resigned the position two years later in protest at May's approach to Brexit. Returning to the back benches, Johnson spent the next several months doing his best to destabilise May's position.

After May resigned in 2019, Johnson was elected Conservative leader and finally achieved his long-held dream of becoming prime minister. He reopened Brexit negotiations and in early September controversially prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court ruled the action unlawful later that month. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, but failing to win parliamentary support for the agreement, Johnson called a snap election for December 2019. He led the Conservative Party to victory with the party's largest seat share and count since UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher's final win in 1987. The United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, entering a period of transition and trade negotiations. Little sooner had Brexit taken effect, though, than the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic became a major issue of his premiership; the government responded with various emergency powers, introduced measures to mitigate its impact, and approved the rollout of a nationwide vaccination programme. Johnson was criticised by some scientists for his slow response to the outbreak, including his resistance to introducing lockdown measures, though was later praised by others for the successful implementation of the vaccination programme, as well as relaxing laws to allow fast development of a workable vaccine. He was also criticised for missing five emergency COBRA meetings on how to handle the rapidly approaching pandemic, with it being rumored that he had instead decided to finish writing his [[ScheduleSlip long-overdue]] biography of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.[[note]]It was meant to be [[MeaningfulReleaseDate released in April 2016, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death]]. As of the time he ceased to be an MP in 2023, Johnson still hadn't finished writing it, despite being paid a hefty advance.[[/note]]

Despite criticisms of his actions early in the pandemic, his government maintained extremely strong approval ratings from the start of the pandemic all the way through to late 2021, thanks to a combination of the typically British mentality that it's bad form to undermine the government during a time of national crisis, sympathy from Johnson himself having fallen severely ill with the disease, and the smooth roll-out of the country's COVID vaccination programme. This resulted in his party experiencing a highly successful round of post-COVID local elections in May 2021, as well as the Conservatives winning the previously safe Labour seat of Hartlepool in a {{landslide|Election}} by-election on the same day. Much like UsefulNotes/TonyBlair before him, Johnson earned the nickname "Teflon Boris" for his seeming ability to shrug off any scandal, and between that and Brexit, many assumed that he would probably enjoy at least a decade in power. As it turned out, however, he would barely even outlast his immediate predecessor's time in office.

Ironically, while (at least some) people felt Johnson had permanently settled [[UsefulNotes/WithEuropeButNotOfIt the "European question"]] that had ended the careers of so many of his Conservative predecessors (not only Cameron and May, but UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan, UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, Thatcher, and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor had foundered over Europe in one way or another), he ultimately ended up losing power thanks to the ''other'' thing that had dogged his predecessors, namely sleaze. The first step towards his downfall came in November 2021, when he attempted to change the parliamentary standards rules in what many people saw as an obvious effort to get ally Owen Paterson acquitted for a donations scandal, resulting in a massive backlash that forced Johnson to back down.[[note]]Paterson subsequently resigned from Parliament in protest of what he claimed to be an unfair investigation, leading to his theoretically ultra-safe seat, North Shropshire, going to the Liberal Democrats in a subsequent by-election. Two other heavy by-election defeats the following summer, at Wakefield (where Labour reclaimed one of its 'heartland' seats the Tories flipped in 2019, which was crucial to that victory) and Tiverton and Honiton (''another'' safe Conservative constituency that went Liberal Democrat), further imperilled Johnson's position. While he wasn't personally implicated in the events that resulted in the Tory incumbents vacating those seats (Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as MP for Wakefield after being convicted of sexual assault, while Neil Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after he was caught viewing pornography ''in the House of Commons''), they reinforced the image of the Tories as sleaze-ridden -- something they had done a lot to shake off during Cameron's and May's tenures -- at the worst possible time for Johnson.[[/note]] He later became embroiled in a more serious controversy when it was revealed that during the pandemic, Johnson violated health restrictions on public gatherings by hosting parties in 10 Downing Street and other government buildings. Known as "Partygate", the scandal made him the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office when he received a fixed penalty notice in April 2022 for breach of COVID-19 regulations. The publishing of a subsequent report on the scandal, and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction, led to a confidence vote among Conservative [=MPs=] on 6 June 2022, in which 211 supported Johnson and 148 opposed him.[[note]]For perspective, a similar intra-party confidence vote regarding Theresa May in December 2018 saw 200 [=MPs=] supporting her and 117 against. For both leaders, the results were bad enough that other people saw them as terminally damaging to their administrations, even if, alone, they failed to oust them.[[/note]]

He was replaced as PM by the winner of the September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, UsefulNotes/LizTruss, the UK's third woman to hold the office, two days before the passing of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. However, after Truss herself was forced out of office after a short and disastrous tenure, Johnson attempted to mount a comeback and declared his candidacy for the next leadership election. This was met with ambivalence among the Tory electorate: some felt that he could get the country back on track since he could claim a mandate through his victory at the most recent general election, while others felt that the public would be reminded of his various failings and that this would put the Tories in an even weaker position after the Truss debacle. Ultimately, he withdrew from consideration despite previously declaring that he had the votes necessary to be in contention -- a claim that was generally met with scepticism. Consequently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak was acclaimed as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October.

Johnson remained on the Tory backbenches for some time, becoming a thorn in Sunak's side by making all sorts of public announcements about what he felt the government should be doing, complicating Sunak's efforts in areas such as the war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and sorting out the UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland situation with respect to Brexit. He eventually resigned from his seat in June 2023 as continued investigations into his conduct while he was PM -- including charges that he hosted in-person parties during COVID lockdowns, and crucially, that he lied to Parliament about said parties -- which looked like they might force him out,[[note]]The Privileges Committee recommended that Johnson be suspended for 90 days, far longer than the 15-day minimum needed to enable a recall petition in his constituency, which would in turn trigger a by-election if it attracted enough signatures.[[/note]] intensified. Ironically, considering the crushing series of parliamentary by-election defeats that the party had experienced throughout 2022 and 2023, Johnson's seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was the one seat[[note]]Not counting Southend West, which the Tories won essentially uncontested after the assassination of Sir David Amess; this was a safe constituency for them and, by convention, other major parties do not contest by-elections that happen because of murder.[[/note]] the Tories ''didn't'' lose in this period, though most people attributed it, rightly or wrongly, more to a controversial emissions tax that was due to be imposed on older vehicles in London than anything to do with Johnson.

* He is voiced by Creator/JonCulshaw in ''Headcases''. In it, Johnson is portrayed as a half-man half-dog who would engage in acts of canine behaviour, such as chasing his tail, rather than answer questions.

* ColbertBump: Johnson's appearance on an April 1998 episode of ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'' is credited as being what brought him to a far wider audience; emphasising a bumbling upper-class persona, he was viewed as entertaining and invited back on to later episodes, including as a guest presenter. After these, he came to be recognised on the street by the public, and was invited to appear on other television shows, such as ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'', ''Parkinson'', ''Breakfast with Frost'', and ''Series/QuestionTime''.

* PoliticianGuestStar: He appeared so frequently on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'' that they produced a DVD collection with his appearances called "The Full Boris".

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), sometimes nicknamed "[=BoJo=]" and commonly known simply as "Boris," is a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom British]] Conservative politician, former [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 2019 to 2022, the former Mayor of UsefulNotes/{{London}} from 2008 to 2016, Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023 (and formerly for Henley from 2001 to 2008), the former Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018, as well as a journalist, novellist, historian, classicist and TV personality. Easily recognizable by his unruly mop of blond hair, general air of amiable distraction, and tendency to talk like somebody out of Creator/PGWodehouse. He is additionally one of the most ethnically mixed high-ranking politicians of the 21st century, being not only UsefulNotes/{{Engl|and}}ish, but additionally UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench, UsefulNotes/{{German|y}},[[note]]He is a descendant of King George II through an illegitimate daughter of a prince of Württemberg. Through that line he is a sixth cousin twice removed of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and a fifth cousin twice removed from the line of her grandmother, who was also from a morganatic branch of the Württembergs.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n, and UsefulNotes/{{Turk|ey}}ish.[[note]]His great-grandfather was a journalist who was lynched for writing about UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, and had his grandfather's surname not been changed due to the Ottomans allying with UsefulNotes/TheGermanEmpire in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Johnson could have been Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Kemal. There is speculation that this is even the source of his hair color, as Ali Kemal was apparently part-Circassian and from a village where many people used to look like Boris.[[/note]] He's the whole [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar Crimean War]] in one messy blond package!

He was born in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to British parents Stanley and Charlotte Johnson, giving him dual [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]–UK citizenship; he renounced the former in 2015.[[note]]Being born in the United States made him eligible to run to be [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates president]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen had he wished]]. After selling a home he owned in Britain, he discovered that, because he was born in the United States, he was subject to a US law requiring any citizen, anywhere, to pay income taxes on sales profits even though he had not lived there since he was a child; he disgustedly paid the tax, then promptly renounced his citizenship.[[/note]] Until the age of eight, he had severely impaired hearing due to a condition known as "glue ear" and was "a subdued child" before it was surgically corrected. He attended Eton College and read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1987 he went to work for ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'', but was fired by its editor for the false attribution of a quotation. In 1989, he became the UsefulNotes/{{Brussels}} correspondent, and later political columnist, for ''The Daily Telegraph'', then became editor of ''Magazine/TheSpectator'' magazine, ''then'' came to major fame with an appearance on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou''. Ian Hislop had a transcript of a phone call in which Johnson agreed to help an old school friend of his beat up another journalist, which Hislop used to mock Johnson, something which Johnson hadn't been expecting; following this, he claimed in his column that the show was entirely scripted. Later, he reappeared on the show to retract this, reassuring "all the little children out there" that the show was indeed entirely spontaneous, and admitting that he'd agreed to come back [[MoneyDearBoy purely for the money]]. He also appeared later as a repeat guest host.

After being elected to Parliament for Henley in 2001,[[note]]When Johnson became editor of ''The Spectator'' in 1999, he had promised its owner Conrad Black than he would not stand to be an MP, a promise he broke during the general election two years later. During his campaign, he told voters that if he was elected he would resign as editor of ''The Spectator''. Yet again, he failed to keep his word.[[/note]] Johnson served as a shadow minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron. He was fired from his position as editor of ''The Spectator'' in 2005, after management became dissatisfied with his lacklustre performance. He resigned from the House of Commons in 2008 after he was elected mayor of London; he was re-elected as mayor in 2012. In the 2015 election, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; as a result, he did not seek re-election as mayor the following year. He became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in the 2016 referendum on membership of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion. When David Cameron resigned following Vote Leave's victory, Johnson quickly announced his intention to run for the now vacant post of prime minister. Although he quickly became the favourite to win, he pulled out of the leadership election before it even started when his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove betrayed him and decided to run himself, claiming that Johnson would not be a capable PM. The erstwhile Remain supporter UsefulNotes/TheresaMay won, then (in an apparent case of needing or wanting to keep her enemies closer than her friends) appointed him Foreign Secretary after the referendum; he resigned the position two years later in protest at May's approach to Brexit. Returning to the back benches, Johnson spent the next several months doing his best to destabilise May's position.

After May resigned in 2019, Johnson was elected Conservative leader and finally achieved his long-held dream of becoming prime minister. He reopened Brexit negotiations and in early September controversially prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court ruled the action unlawful later that month. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, but failing to win parliamentary support for the agreement, Johnson called a snap election for December 2019 in which he led the Conservative Party to victory with the party's largest seat share since UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher's final win in 1987. The United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, entering a period of transition and trade negotiations. The UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic became a major issue of his premiership; the government responded with various emergency powers, introduced measures to mitigate its impact, and approved the rollout of a nationwide vaccination programme. Johnson was criticised by some scientists for his slow response to the outbreak, including his resistance to introducing lockdown measures, though was later praised by others for the successful implementation of the vaccination programme, as well as relaxing laws to allow fast development of a workable vaccine. He was also criticised for missing five emergency COBRA meetings on how to handle the rapidly approaching pandemic, with it being rumored that he had instead decided to finish writing his [[ScheduleSlip long-overdue]] biography of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.[[note]]It was meant to be [[MeaningfulReleaseDate released in April 2016, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death]]. As of the time he ceased to be an MP in 2023, Johnson still hadn't finished writing it, despite being paid a hefty advance.[[/note]]

Despite criticisms of his actions early in the pandemic, his government maintained extremely strong approval ratings from the start of the pandemic all the way through to late 2021, thanks to a combination of the typically British mentality that it's bad form to undermine the government during a time of national crisis, sympathy from Johnson himself falling severely ill with the disease, and the smooth roll-out of the country's COVID vaccination programme. This resulted in his party experiencing a highly successful round of post-COVID local elections in May 2021, as well as the Conservatives winning the previously safe Labour seat of Hartlepool in a {{landslide|Election}} on the same day. Much like UsefulNotes/TonyBlair before him, Johnson earned the nickname "Teflon Boris" for his seeming ability to shrug off any scandal, and between that and Brexit, many assumed that he would probably enjoy at least a decade in power. As it turned out, however, he would barely even outlast his immediate predecessor's time in office.

Ironically, while (at least some) people felt Johnson had permanently settled [[UsefulNotes/WithEuropeButNotOfIt the "European question"]] that had ended the careers of so many of his Conservative predecessors (not only Cameron and May, but UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan, UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, Thatcher, and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor had foundered over Europe in one way or another), he ultimately ended up losing power thanks to the ''other'' thing that had dogged his predecessors, namely sleaze. The first step towards his downfall came in November 2021, when he attempted to change the parliamentary standards rules in what many people saw as an obvious effort to get ally Owen Paterson acquitted for a donations scandal, resulting in a massive backlash that forced Johnson to back down.[[note]]Paterson subsequently resigned from Parliament in protest of what he claimed to be an unfair investigation, leading to his theoretically ultra-safe seat, North Shropshire, going to the Liberal Democrats in a subsequent by-election. Two other heavy by-election defeats in later months, at Wakefield (where Labour reclaimed one of its 'heartland' seats the Tories took in 2019) and Tiverton and Honiton (''another'' safe Conservative constituency that went Liberal Democrat), further imperilled Johnson's position. While he wasn't personally implicated in the events that resulted in the Tory incumbents vacating those seats (Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as MP for Wakefield after being convicted of sexual assault, while Neil Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after he was caught viewing pornography ''in the House of Commons''), they reinforced the image of the Tories as sleaze-ridden -- something they had done a lot to shake off during Cameron's and May's tenures -- at the worst possible time for Johnson.[[/note]] He later became embroiled in a more serious controversy when it was revealed that during the pandemic, Johnson violated health restrictions on public gatherings by hosting parties in 10 Downing Street and other government buildings. Known as "Partygate", the scandal made him the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office when he received a fixed penalty notice in April 2022 for breach of COVID-19 regulations. The publishing of a subsequent report on the scandal, and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction, led to a confidence vote among Conservative [=MPs=] on 6 June 2022, in which 211 supported Johnson and 148 opposed him.[[note]]For perspective, a similar intra-party confidence vote regarding Theresa May in December 2018 saw 200 [=MPs=] supporting her and 117 against. For both leaders the result was bad enough that other people saw it as terminally damaging to their administration, even if, on its own, it failed to oust them.[[/note]]

He was replaced as PM by the winner of the September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, UsefulNotes/LizTruss, the UK's third woman to hold the office, two days before the passing of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. However, after Truss herself was forced out of office after a short and disastrous tenure, Johnson attempted to mount a comeback and declared his candidacy for the next leadership election. This was met with ambivalence within the Tory electorate: some felt that he could get the country back on track since he could claim a mandate through his victory at the most recent general election, while others felt that the public would be reminded of his various failings and that this would put the Tories in an even weaker position after the Truss debacle. Ultimately, he withdrew from consideration despite previously declaring that he had the votes necessary to be in contention -- a claim that was generally met with scepticism. Consequently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak was acclaimed as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October.

Johnson remained on the Tory backbenches for some time, becoming a thorn in Sunak's side by making all sorts of public announcements about what he felt the government should be doing, complicating Sunak's efforts in areas such as the war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and sorting out the UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland situation with respect to Brexit. He eventually resigned from his seat in June 2023 as continued investigations into his conduct while PM -- including charges that he hosted in-person parties during COVID lockdowns, and crucially, that he lied to Parliament about said parties -- which looked like they might force him out,[[note]]The Privileges Committee recommended that Johnson be suspended for 90 days, far longer than the 15-day minimum needed to enable a recall petition in his constituency, which would in turn trigger a by-election if it attracted enough signatures.[[/note]] intensified. Ironically, considering the crushing series of parliamentary by-election defeats that the party had experienced throughout 2022 and 2023, Johnson's seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was the one seat[[note]]Not counting Southend West, which the Tories won essentially uncontested after the assassination of Sir David Amess; this was a safe constituency for them and there's a convention that other major parties do not contest by-elections that happen because of murder.[[/note]] the Tories ''didn't'' lose in this period, though most people attributed it, rightly or wrongly, more to a controversial emissions tax that was due to be imposed on older vehicles in London than anything to do with Johnson.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), sometimes nicknamed "[=BoJo=]" and commonly known simply as "Boris," is a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom British]] Conservative politician, former [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 2019 to 2022, the former Mayor of UsefulNotes/{{London}} from 2008 to 2016, Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023 (and formerly for Henley from 2001 to 2008), the former Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018, as well as a journalist, novellist, historian, classicist and TV personality. Easily recognizable by his unruly mop of blond hair, general air of amiable distraction, and tendency to talk like somebody out of Creator/PGWodehouse. He is additionally one of the most ethnically mixed high-ranking politicians of the 21st century, being not only UsefulNotes/{{Engl|and}}ish, but additionally UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench, UsefulNotes/{{German|y}},[[note]]He is a descendant of King George II through an illegitimate daughter of a prince of Württemberg. Through that line he is a sixth cousin twice removed of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and a fifth cousin twice removed from the line of her grandmother, who was also from a morganatic branch of the Württembergs.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n, and UsefulNotes/{{Turk|ey}}ish.[[note]]His great-grandfather was a journalist who was lynched for writing about UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, and had his grandfather's surname not been changed due to the Ottomans allying with Germany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Johnson could have been Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Kemal. There is speculation that this is even the source of his hair color, as Ali Kemal was apparently part-Circassian and from a village where many people used to look like Boris.[[/note]] He's the whole [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar Crimean War]] in one messy blond package!

After being elected to Parliament for Henley in 2001,[[note]]When Johnson became editor of ''The Spectator'' in 1999, he had promised its owner Conrad Black than he would not stand to be an MP, a promise he broke during the general election two years later. During his campaign, he told voters that if he was elected he would resign as editor of ''The Spectator''. Yet again, he failed to keep his word.[[/note]] Johnson was a shadow minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron. He was fired from his position as editor of ''The Spectator'' in 2005, after management became dissatisfied with his lacklustre performance. He resigned from the House of Commons in 2008 after he was elected mayor of London; he was re-elected as mayor in 2012. In the 2015 election, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; as a result, he did not seek re-election as mayor the following year. He became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. When David Cameron resigned following Vote Leave's victory, Johnson quickly announced his intention to run for the now vacant post of prime minister. Although he quickly became the favourite to win, he pulled out of the election before it even started when his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove betrayed him and decided to run himself, claiming that Johnson would not be a capable PM. UsefulNotes/TheresaMay (in an apparent case of needing or wanting to keep her enemies closer than her friends) appointed him Foreign Secretary after the referendum; he resigned the position two years later in protest at May's approach to Brexit. Returning to the back benches, Johnson spent the next several months doing his best to destabilise May's position.

Ironically, while (at least some) people felt Johnson had permanently settled [[UsefulNotes/WithEuropeButNotOfIt the "European question"]] that had ended the careers of so many of his Conservative predecessors (not only Cameron and May, but UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan, UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, Thatcher, and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor had foundered over Europe), he ultimately ended up losing power thanks to the ''other'' thing that had dogged his predecessors, namely sleaze. The first step towards his downfall came in November 2021, when he attempted to change the parliamentary standards rules in what was seen as an obvious effort to get ally Owen Paterson acquitted for a donations scandal, resulting in a massive backlash that forced Johnson to back down.[[note]]Paterson subsequently resigned from Parliament in protest of what he claimed to be an unfair investigation, leading to his theoretically ultra-safe seat, North Shropshire, going to the Liberal Democrats in a subsequent by-election. Two other heavy by-election defeats in later months, at Wakefield (where Labour reclaimed one of its 'heartland' seats the Tories took in 2019) and Tiverton and Honiton (''another'' safe Conservative constituency that went Liberal Democrat), further imperilled Johnson's position. While he wasn't personally implicated in the events that resulted in the Tory incumbents vacating those seats (Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as MP for Wakefield after being convicted of sexual assault, while Neil Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after he was caught viewing pornography ''in the House of Commons''), they reinforced the image of the Tories as sleaze-ridden -- something they had done a lot to shake off during Cameron's and May's tenures -- at the worst possible time for Johnson.[[/note]] He later became embroiled in a more serious controversy when it was revealed that during the pandemic, Johnson violated health restrictions on public gatherings by hosting parties in 10 Downing Street and other government buildings. Known as "Partygate", the scandal made him the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office when he received a fixed penalty notice in April 2022 for breach of COVID-19 regulations. The publishing of a subsequent report on the scandal, and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction, led to a confidence vote among Conservative [=MPs=] on 6 June 2022, in which 211 supported Johnson and 148 opposed him.[[note]]For perspective, a similar intra-party confidence vote regarding Theresa May in December 2018 saw 200 [=MPs=] supporting her and 117 against. For both leaders the result was bad enough that other people saw it as terminally damaging to their administration, even if, on its own, it failed to oust them.[[/note]]

Weeks later, he was forced from office by the Chris Pincher scandal, where he first denied knowing of allegations of sexual harassment by Pincher at the time he appointed him to be Conservative Deputy Chief Whip; then got other cabinet members to tell the media that he didn't know about the allegations as well; then was forced to admit that he'd known about them all along. The ensuing mass resignations (62 [=MPs=] resigned from government positions in all, including 36 in a 24-hour period, a record in British history) ''finally'' forced him to announce his own departure. Despite Brexit being a huge part of his political legacy, he is the first Conservative PM since UsefulNotes/AlecDouglasHome whose departure from Number 10 was ''not'' a byproduct of Britain's relationship with Europe.

He was replaced as PM by the winner of the September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, UsefulNotes/LizTruss, the UK's third woman to hold the office, two days before the passing of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. However, after Truss herself was forced out of office after a short and disastrous tenure, Johnson attempted to mount a comeback and declared his candidacy for the next leadership election. This was met with ambivalence within the Tory electorate: some felt that he could get the country back on track since he could claim a mandate through his victory at the most recent general election, while others felt that the public would be reminded of his various failings and that this would put the Tories in an even weaker position after the Truss debacle. Ultimately, he withdrew from consideration despite previously declaring that he had the votes necessary to be in contention -- a claim that was generally met with scepticism. Consequently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak was acclaimed as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October.

Johnson remained on the Tory backbenches for some time, becoming a thorn in Sunak's side by making all sorts of public announcements about what he felt the government should be doing, complicating Sunak's efforts in areas such as the war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and sorting out the UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland situation with respect to Brexit. He eventually resigned from his seat in June of 2023 as continued investigations into his conduct while PM -- including charges that he hosted in-person parties during COVID lockdowns, and crucially, that he lied to Parliament about said parties -- which looked like they might force him out,[[note]]The Privileges Committee recommended that Johnson be suspended for 90 days, far longer than the 15-day minimum needed to enable a recall petition in his constituency, which would in turn trigger a by-election if it attracted enough signatures.[[/note]] intensified. Ironically, considering the crushing series of parliamentary by-election defeats that the party had experienced throughout 2022 and 2023, Johnson's seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was the one seat[[note]]Not counting Southend West, which the Tories won essentially uncontested after the assassination of Sir David Amess; this was a safe constituency for them and there's a convention that other parties do not contest by-elections that happen because of murder.[[/note]] the Tories ''didn't'' lose in this period, though this was attributed more to a controversial emissions tax that was due to be imposed on older vehicles in London than anything to do with Johnson.

* [[Creator/StuartMcQuarrie Stuart McQuarrie]] in the 2005 television film ''A Very Social Secretary''.
* Creator/ChristianBrassington in the 2009 drama documentary ''When Boris Met Dave''.
* Creator/WillBarton in the 2017 [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] drama ''Theresa vs. Boris: How May Became PM''.
* Creator/RichardGoulding in the 2019 Creator/{{HBO}}[=/=]Creator/Channel4 drama ''Film/BrexitTheUncivilWar''.

* Johnson is voiced by [[Creator/LewisMacLeod Lewis MacLeod]] in the fourth and fifth series of ''WesternAnimation/TwoDTV'' as well as the radio revival of ''Series/DeadRingers''.

* He is voiced by Creator/JonCulshaw in ''Headcases''. In it, Johnson is portrayed as a half-man half-dog who would engage in acts of canine behaviour, such as chasing his tail, rather than answering questions.

* AuthorAvatar: In the mid-noughties he wrote a novel called ''Seventy-Two Virgins'', which stars [[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/17/boris-johnson-seventy-two-virgins-novel "a tousled, bicycling Tory MP who believes everything is up for grabs"]]. Sound familiar?

* FirstNameBasis: {{Subverted|Trope}}. In media portrayals of him, he usually goes by the name "Boris", the only British political figure to be portrayed this way outside of the Royal Family. However, he started going by the name "Boris" when he arrived at Eton in 1977, prior to which he had gone by his actual first name "Alex" (his full name being Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson). Although "Boris" is treated as his first name, the trope that's actually in play in the media is therefore MiddleNameBasis.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), sometimes nicknamed "[=BoJo=]" and commonly known simply as "Boris," is a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom British]] Conservative politician, former [[UsefulNotes/TheMenOfDowningStreet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 2019 to 2022, the former Mayor of UsefulNotes/{{London}} from 2008 to 2016, Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023 (and formerly for Henley from 2001 to 2008), the former Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018, as well as a journalist, novellist, historian, classicist and TV personality. Easily recognizable by his unruly mop of blond hair, general air of amiable distraction, and tendency to talk like somebody out of Creator/PGWodehouse. He is additionally one of the most ethnically mixed high-ranking politicians of the 21st century, being not only UsefulNotes/{{Engl|and}}ish, but additionally UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench, UsefulNotes/{{German|y}},[[note]]He is a descendant of King George II through an illegitimate daughter of a prince of Württemberg. Through that line he is a sixth cousin twice removed of UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and a fifth cousin twice removed from the line of her grandmother, who was also from a morganatic branch of the Württembergs.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n, and UsefulNotes/{{Turk|ey}}ish[[note]] His great-grandfather was a journalist who was lynched for writing about UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, and had his grandfather's surname not been changed due to the Ottomans allying with Germany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, Johnson could have been Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Kemal. There is speculation that this is even the source of his hair color, as Ali Kemal was apparently part-Circassian and from a village where many people used to look like Boris[[/note]]. He's the whole [[UsefulNotes/TheCrimeanWar Crimean War]] in one messy blond package!

He was born in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to two British subjects, giving him dual [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]] and UK citizenship; he renounced the latter in 2015.[[note]]The former fact made him eligible to run to be [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates president of the United States]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen had he wished]]. After selling a home he owned in Britain, he discovered that, because he was born in the United States, he was subject to a US law requiring any citizen, anywhere, to pay income taxes on sales profits even though he had not lived there since he was a child; he disgustedly paid the tax, then promptly renounced his citizenship.[[/note]] Until the age of eight, he had severely impaired hearing due to a condition known as "glue ear" and was "a subdued child" before it was surgically corrected. He attended Eton College and read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1987 he went to work for ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'', but was fired by its editor for the false attribution of a quotation. In 1989, he became the UsefulNotes/{{Brussels}} correspondent, and later political columnist, for ''The Daily Telegraph'', then became editor of ''Magazine/TheSpectator'' magazine, ''then'' came to major fame with an appearance on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou''. Ian Hislop had a transcript of a phone call in which Johnson agreed to help an old school friend of his beat up another journalist, which Hislop used to mock Johnson, something which Johnson hadn't been expecting; following this, he claimed in his column that the show was entirely scripted. Later, he reappeared on the show to retract this, reassuring "all the little children out there" that the show was indeed entirely spontaneous, and admitting that he'd agreed to come back [[MoneyDearBoy purely for the money]]. He also appeared later as a repeat guest host.

After being elected to Parliament for Henley in 2001,[[note]]When Johnson became editor of ''The Spectator'' in 1999, he had promised its owner than he would not stand to be an MP, a promise he broke during the General Election two years later. During his campaign, he told voters that if he was elected he would resign as editor of ''The Spectator''. Yet again, he failed to keep his word.[[/note]] Johnson was a shadow minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron. He was fired from his position as editor of ''The Spectator'' in 2005, after management became dissatisfied with his lacklustre performance. He resigned from the House of Commons in 2008 after he was elected mayor of London; he was re-elected as mayor in 2012. In the 2015 election, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; as a result, he did not seek re-election as mayor the following year. He became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. When UsefulNotes/DavidCameron resigned following Vote Leave's victory, Johnson quickly announced his intention to run for the now-vacant post of prime minister. Although he quickly became the favourite to win, he pulled out of the election before it even started when he was betrayed by his fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove, who decided to run himself, claiming that Johnson would not be a capable PM. UsefulNotes/TheresaMay (in an apparent case of needing or wanting to keep her enemies closer than her friends) appointed him Foreign Secretary after the referendum; he resigned the position two years later in protest at May's approach to Brexit. Returning to the backbenches, Johnson spent the next several months doing his best to destabilise May's position.

After May resigned in 2019, Johnson was elected Conservative leader and finally achieved his long-held dream of becoming prime minister. He reopened Brexit negotiations and in early September controversially prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court ruled the action unlawful later that month. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, but failing to win parliamentary support for the agreement, Johnson called a snap election for December 2019 in which he led the Conservative Party to victory with the party's largest seat share since UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher's final win in 1987. The United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, entering a period of transition and trade negotiations. The UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic became a major issue of his premiership; the government responded with various emergency powers, introduced measures to mitigate its impact, and approved the rollout of a nationwide vaccination programme. Johnson was criticised by some scientists for his slow response to the outbreak, including his resistance to introducing lockdown measures, though was later praised by others for the successful implementation of the vaccination programme, as well as relaxing laws to allow fast development of a workable vaccine. He was also criticized for missing five emergency COBRA meetings on how to handle the rapidly-approaching pandemic, with it being rumored that he had decided to instead finish writing his long-overdue biography of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.[[note]]It was meant to be released in April 2016 to coincide with 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. As of the time he ceased to be an MP in 2023, Johnson still hadn't finished writing it, despite being paid a hefty advance.[[/note]]

Despite criticisms of his actions early in the pandemic, his government maintained extremely strong approval ratings from the start of the pandemic all the way through to late 2021, thanks to a combination of the typically British mentality that it's bad form to undermine the government during a time of national crisis, sympathy from Johnson himself falling severely ill with the disease, and the smooth roll-out of the country's COVID vaccination programme. This resulted in his party experiencing a highly successful round of post-COVID local elections in May 2021, as well as the Conservatives winning the previously safe Labour seat of Hartlepool in a CurbStompBattle on the same day. Much like UsefulNotes/TonyBlair before him, Johnson earned the nickname "Teflon Boris" for his seeming ability to shrug off any scandal, and between that and Brexit, many assumed that he would probably enjoy at least a decade in power. As it turned out, however, he would barely even outlast his predecessor's time in office.

Ironically, while (at least some) people felt Johnson had permanently settled [[UsefulNotes/WithEuropeButNotOfIt the "European question"]] that had ended the careers of so many of his Conservative predecessors (not only Cameron and May, but UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan, UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, Thatcher, and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor had foundered over Europe), he ultimately ended up losing power thanks to the ''other'' thing that had dogged his predecessors, namely sleaze. The first step towards his downfall came in November 2021, when he attempted to change the parliamentary standards rules in what was seen as an obvious effort to get ally Owen Paterson acquitted for a donations scandal, resulting in a massive backlash that forced Johnson to back down.[[note]]Paterson subsequently resigned from Parliament in protest of what he claimed to be an unfair investigation, leading to his theoretically ultra-safe seat, North Shropshire, going to the Liberal Democrats in a subsequent by-election. Two other heavy by-election defeats in later months, at Wakefield (where Labour reclaimed one of its 'heartland' seats the Tories took in 2019) and Tiverton and Honiton (''another'' safe Conservative constituency that went Liberal Democrat), further imperilled Johnson's position. While he wasn't personally implicated in the events that resulted in the Tory incumbents vacating those seats (Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as MP for Wakefield after being convicted of sexual assault, while Neil Parish resigned as MP for Tiverton and Honiton after he was caught viewing pornography ''in the House of Commons''), they reinforced the image of the Tories as sleaze-ridden -- something they had done a lot to shake off during Cameron's and May's tenures -- at the worst possible time for Johnson.[[/note]] He later became embroiled in a more serious controversy when it was revealed that during the pandemic, Johnson violated health restrictions on public gatherings by hosting parties in 10 Downing Street and other government buildings. Known as "Partygate", the scandal made him the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office when he received a fixed penalty notice in April 2022 for breach of COVID-19 regulations. The publishing of a subsequent report on the scandal, and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction, led to a confidence vote among Conservative [=MPs=] on 6 June 2022, in which 211 supported Johnson and 148 opposed him.[[note]]For perspective, a similar vote of no confidence in Theresa May in December 2018 saw 200 supporting her and 117 voting against. For both leaders the result was bad enough to be seen as terminally damaging to their administration, even if, on its own, it failed to oust them.[[/note]]

Weeks later, he was forced from office by the Chris Pincher scandal, where he first denied knowing of allegations of sexual harassment by Pincher at the time he appointed him Deputy Chief Whip; then got other cabinet members to also tell the media that he didn't know about the allegations; then was forced to admit that he'd known about them all along. The ensuing mass resignations (62 [=MPs=] resigned from government positions in all, including 36 in a 24-hour period, a record in British history) ''finally'' forced him to announce his own departure. Despite Brexit being a huge part of his political legacy, he is the first Conservative PM since UsefulNotes/AlecDouglasHome whose departure from Number 10 was ''not'' tied into Britain's relationship with Europe.

He was replaced as PM by the winner of the September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, UsefulNotes/LizTruss, the UK's third woman to hold the office, two days before the passing of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. However, after Truss herself was forced out of office after a short and disastrous tenure, Johnson attempted to mount a comeback and declared his candidacy for the next leadership election. This was met with ambivalence within the Tory electorate; some felt that he could get the country back on track as he could claim a mandate through his general election victory, while others felt that the public would be reminded of his various failings and that this would put the Tories in an even weaker position after the Truss debacle. Ultimately, he withdrew from consideration despite previously declaring that he had the votes necessary to be in contention -- a claim that was generally met with scepticism. Consequently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak was acclaimed as leader of the Conservative Party on 24 October.

Johnson remained on the Tory backbenches for some time, however, becoming a thorn in Sunak's side by making all sorts of public announcements about what he felt the government should be doing, complicating Sunak's efforts in areas such as the war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and sorting out the UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland situation with respect to Brexit. He eventually resigned from his seat in June of 2023 as continued investigations into his conduct while PM -- including charges that he hosted in-person parties during COVID lockdowns, and crucially, that he lied to Parliament about said parties -- which looked like they might force him out[[note]]The Privileges Committee recommended that Johnson be suspended for 90 days, far longer than the 15-day minimum needed to enable a recall petition in his constituency which would in turn trigger a by-election if it attracted enough signatures.[[/note]], intensified. Ironically, considering the crushing series of parliamentary by-election defeats that the party had experienced throughout 2022 and 2023, Johnson's seat of Uxbridge was the one seat[[note]]Not counting Southend West, which was won by the party essentially uncontested after the assassination of Sir David Amess[[/note]] the Tories ''didn't'' lose in this timeframe, though this was attributed more to a controversial emissions tax that was due to be imposed on older vehicles in London than anything to do with Johnson.