Boris Johnson

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, born in New York City in 1964, is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician whose career spans editorship of The Spectator, two terms as Mayor of London (2008–2016), service as Foreign Secretary under Theresa May (2016–2018), and a tenure as Prime Minister from 24 July 2019 to 6 September 2022.

Johnson rose to international prominence as a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 EU referendum. After succeeding May as Conservative leader, he won a decisive 80-seat majority in the December 2019 general election on the slogan "Get Brexit Done." His government concluded the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement (including a revised Northern Ireland Protocol) and the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, signed in December 2020, ending the Brexit transition period on 31 January 2020.

In foreign policy, his premiership oversaw:

• The AUKUS security pact with Australia and the United States, announced in September 2021.
• An "Indo-Pacific tilt" articulated in the 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.
• Strong early Western support for Ukraine following Russia's February 2022 invasion, including weapons transfers and a high-profile visit to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in April 2022.
• Hosting the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November 2021.

Domestically, his government managed the COVID-19 pandemic, launching one of the earliest mass vaccination rollouts in December 2020. His tenure ended amid the "Partygate" scandal over lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street, for which the Metropolitan Police issued him a fixed penalty notice in April 2022, and a series of ministerial resignations in July 2022. He resigned as an MP in June 2023 after a Commons Privileges Committee found he had misled Parliament over Partygate.