Boris Johnson Biography

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York on 19 June 1964 and this meant that, until recently, he was officially a US citizen. Johnson is the eldest of four children to English parents Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative MP, and his painter (first) wife Charlotte Johnson.

Known as Al to his family, Johnson's family tree makes for interesting reading: his maternal grandfather, Sir James Fawcett, was president of the European Commission of Human Rights and on his father's side, he is the great grandson of Ali Kemal Bey, a Turkish journalist who was murdered during the Turkish war of Independence.

The Johnsons returned to England shortly after Boris’ birth and as a child he suffered from severe deafness, such that he was in and out of hospital in a bid to correct it. Johnson was first educated at the European School in Brussels when his father landed a job at the European Commission, in charge of pollution control. It was here that he met his future wife, Marina Wheeler, daughter of BBC journalist Charles Wheeler.

As his parent's marriage began to falter, Johnson was packed off to board at Eton College in England. He went on to read classics at Oxford University and was elected president of the Oxford Union. He was also a member of the university's Bullingdon Club with David Cameron, which was notorious for its hard-drinking and rebellious behaviour. Solid evidence of Johnson's involvement in such wild antics are hard to locate but he has been cannily honest about his drug use in the past, owning up to smoking cannabis as a teen and saying on the TV programme, 'Have I Got News For You': "I think I was once given cocaine, but I sneezed and so it did not go up my nose. In fact, I may have been doing icing sugar."

As a 19-year-old, Johnson was already obsessed with politics, and known for his sense of humour and bumbling persona. In 1987, he married fellow student and part-time model Allegra Mostyn-Owen in a grand ceremony when they were just 23. According to a friend, Johnson managed to wear the wrong clothes to walk down the aisle and lost his wedding ring an hour after they were married. Needless to say, the marriage lasted less than three years and Johnson subsequently focused his attentions to his career in journalism in Brussels.

The same year as his divorce from Allegra came through, Johnson married Marina Wheeler and the couple remain together, still, with two sons and two daughters together.

Johnson's first attempt at forging a career as a trainee management consultant at L.E.K Consulting lasted a week, with him recalling later “try as I might I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth-profit matrix and stay conscious.”

He moved on to train as a reporter at The Times, but within a year had been sacked for falsifying a quote. The story was about an archaeological dig that Johnson felt needed spicing up, so he quoted a history don, who just happened to be his godfather, who failed to see the funny side …

Johnson described this risky move as his “biggest cock-up,” but luckily the Daily Telegraph's then editor, Sir Max Hastings, decided to give him a second chance and took him on as a lead writer and the paper's Brussels correspondent. His career there blossomed and he was later promoted to assistant editor and chief political columnist until 1999.

Johnson's association with The Spectator began as political columnist from 1994 to 1995. In 1999, he became editor, a position he maintained until December 2005. His journalistic career was now going from strength to strength and he had also developed an unlikely sideline as a TV personality, after an appearance on the BBC panel show 'Have I Got News for You' in 1998 went down a storm.

His uniquely entertaining personality and life experiences to date led him to after-dinner speeches, TV documentaries and even a novel. Collections of his newspaper columns also became bestsellers. But Johnson still harboured political ambitions despite standing unsuccessfully for the Conservatives at the 1997 general election, in the Labour stronghold of Clwyd South.

In 2001, Johnson stood for Michael Heseltine's old seat, in Henley, Oxfordshire, and won, but his progression in politics somewhat collided with his editorship at The Spectator, which continued to publish articles, which proved embarrassing or irritating to some of his new Parliamentary colleagues. It was an unsigned 2004 Spectator editorial, accusing the citizens of Liverpool of wallowing in their "victim status" over the murdered Iraq hostage Ken Bigley, which finally threw Johnson into really deep hot water. Although he had not written the piece, as editor, he accepted responsibility for its publication.

Tory leader at the time, Michael Howard, resisted demands to sack Johnson and instead dispatched him to Liverpool to apologise to the entire city. The mission quickly spiraled further into embarrassment when Johnson had to take part in a radio phone in, which he bumbled through and Paul Bigley, brother of Ken, told him: "You're a self-centred, pompous twit; even your body language on TV is wrong."

Johnson endured the ordeal for the sake of his political career, but Mr Howard finally found substantial cause to sack him in November 2004 over accusations that he'd lied to him about a four year affair with Petronella Wyatt. Johnson denied the accusations and suffered the indignity of being thrown out of home by his wife Marina. It looked like Johnson had well and truly waved goodbye to his hopes of a successful political career.

However, old chum David Cameron - the new Conservative leader – came to Johnson's rescue in December 2005, appointing Boris Shadow Minister for Higher Education. Johnson duly resigned as editor of The Spectator shortly afterwards and became responsible for the Conservatives' stance on university top-up fees.

In September 2006, Johnson's image was used in 'Boris needs you' and 'I Love Boris' material to promote the Conservative Party's image during Freshers Week in universities.

On 16 July 2007, after several days of speculation and media interest, Johnson announced he was a potential Conservative candidate for the London mayoral election in 2008. He resigned as shadow Higher Education spokesman, but remained an MP, with the support of David Cameron.

Johnson's candidacy for London Mayor was confirmed by the Conservative Party on 27 September 2007 and his election campaign was launched in Edmonton on 31 March 2008, when David Cameron, introducing Johnson, commented: "I don't always agree with him, but I respect the fact that he's absolutely his own man."

Johnson's outspokenness both as a politician and as a journalist and editor of The Spectator has led to his association with a number of controversies, which the media and his opponents in the Mayoral campaign took great delight in re-publicising. The archive of embarrassing editorial blips, off-the-cuff public remarks and general Johnson-esque gaffes was significant. Several people who had seen Johnson on TV appearances could not take his campaign seriously and considered him a bit of a joke.

However, just before midnight on 2 May 2008, Boris Johnson was confirmed as having won the London Mayor election, beating his nearest rival in the polls, Ken Livingstone, the previous Mayor. Johnson also announced that as a result of his victory he would resign as an MP.

Johnson didn't wait long to make changes in the Mayoral staff and has made several changes to Livingstone's staff, mainly focusing on areas where he believes salary cut backs can be made to increase budgets elsewhere - predominantly within the London Development Agency (LDA), which Johnson has declared had wasted thousands of pounds during the previous Mayor's seat.

On 7 May the same year, Johnson began his crime-tackling within the capital and announced that alcohol would be banned on the London transport network from 1 June. On the final evening in which alcohol was permitted on the tubes and buses, thousands of drinkers took advantage of their last night of legal boozing on the move and descended on the Underground for one final party. Six London Underground stations were closed as trouble broke out and a number of staff and police were assaulted. Police made 17 arrests as several trains were damaged and withdrawn from service.

Johnson was present at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and received the Olympic flag from Guo Jinlong, the mayor of Beijing, to show that London will be the host city in 2012.

He also broke tradition in August 2008 by declaring his support for Barack Obama in the US presidential elections, following this declaration with an editorial in the Telegraph explaining his choice.

The politician appeared on the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are' on 20 August 2008, when he traced his family history back to Sir James Fawcett and Ali Kemal Bey before finding out he is descended from royalty.

Later that year, Johnson forced Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to resign following his handling of the accidental shooting of Jean-Charles De Menezes at Stockwell tube station and bonus payments handed to police.

Even Johnson was caught up in the politician's expenses scandal in June 2009, when it was found that mayoral spending on taxis had increased by 540 per cent under Johnson's term to reach more than £4,000.

On 2 November 2009, he proved to be a 'knight on a shiny bicycle' when he came to the aid of Franny Armstrong who was being mugged by a group of young girls. The Mayor's office has never commented on the incident.

Since then, the Mayor has introduced 'bendy buses' and the Barclay's Bike Scheme, which allows commuters and visitors to the capital to rent a bike for a few hours or days at a time. A number of 'super cycle highways' have also been created across London.

Since those early days at Oxford University, Johnson has become one of the most recognisable figures in British politics. His trademark unruly blonde hair and buffoon ways have earned him a legion of fans, and he has been no stranger to controversies throughout his career.

As a result, Johnson is one of the few British politicians known by his first name alone. London now waits to see what the next few years hold with him at the helm. If anything, it will no doubt be both controversial and entertaining.