Boris Johnson's improbable rise from Brussels to Brexit

Unless all the pundits, polls and predictions are wrong, Boris Johnson seems all but certain to become the next leader of Britain's Conservative Party and the country's prime minister. (Peter Nicholls/Reuters)

Boris Johnson is a British politician who is the Prime Minister appointed by the United Kingdom and has been a leader of the Conservative Party since July 23, 2019. He has been a member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was the Henley MP from 2001 to 2008. He was mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, and from 2016 to 2018 he served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Johnson identifies himself as a single-nation conservative and has been associated with both economic and socially liberal policies.

Is important to say that he declined to run in the party leadership election immediately following the referendum, despite speculation that he would. After Theresa May won the leadership, she appointed Johnson Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He served in this position for two years, before resigning in protest at May’s approach to Brexit, criticizing the Checkers Agreement. Johnson subsequently stood in the leadership election that followed May’s own resignation, and on 23 July 2019, he was elected Leader of the Conservative Party and is expected to take office as Prime Minister the following day.

Something nobody saw coming

There is no doubt that very few would have imagined that Johnson, a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in Brussels, would one day be willing to put on the mantle of the British presidency.

It is appropriate to mention that experts predict that a controversial politician will be crowned the next prime minister of the United Kingdom by the conservatives who govern.

And it is that on the one hand, it has been said that for some it is a chancer who has managed to take advantage of a surface amulet to sell any story that may be convenient in the search for personal ambition.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, for others, it is a refreshing and charismatic politician who manages to connect both with the man in the street and with the highest levels of society as few others.

Even so, the British journalist and writer Simon Kuper, who started at Oxford University a year after Johnson graduated with a degree in classics in 1988 said “He’s not a very ideological figure. He never really thought the European Union was this terrible imposition”.

Kuper also adds, “He pretends to be a very jovial, bumbling figure but in fact he’s a very cold-hearted, ambitious person who always wanted statues of himself built and in each situation seeks personal advantage. He’s not this vague figure that he presents himself as”.

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Source: Margaret Evans | CBC News