5th August, 2022

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party, announced his resignation on 7th July 2022 after almost three years in power. For now, he will remain PM – but, how much do you know about Boris Johnson and what the next steps are in terms of recruiting his replacement?

Who is Boris Johnson?

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson – AKA, Boris Johnson, was born in New York in 1964, he studied at Eton College and read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union.

Boris Johnson’s early career:

In his early career, Boris was a journalist. He became the Brussels correspondent, and later political columnist for The Daily Telegraph and in 1999 he was appointed editor of The Spectator magazine.

After being elected to Parliament in 2001, Boris Johnson was a shadow minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron.
In 2008, he was elected mayor of London and later re-elected as mayor when he beat his rival in 2012.

In the 2015 election, Boris was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
In 2019, Boris was elected Conservative leader.

He called a snap election for December 2019 in which he led the Conservative Party to victory (and his appointment as Prime Minister) with 43.6% of the vote – this was the party’s largest seat share since 1987.

A topic on everybody’s lips – on 31st January 2020, the United Kingdom withdrew from the EU and entered into a transition period and shortly after, Covid hit.

The pandemic became a major issue of his prime ministership. The government introduced preventive measures, such as social distancing and the use of face masks, across the nation to lessen the impact of Covid and approved the rollout of a vaccination programme.

However, he faced backlash known as “Partygate” over his breaching of COVID-19 regulations at number 10. In response to this, Boris received a fixed penalty notice and became the first British prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.

After the publishing of the Sue Gray report, there was an even more widespread sense of dissatisfaction which led to a confidence vote in his leadership among Conservative MPs in June 2022. Although he had survived the vote, he was politically weakened.

After further scandal involving Chris Pincher in July 2022 (who Boris had hired as Government Deputy Chief Whip), a large number of Conservative MPs resigned, causing Boris to resign as party leader.

How will the next prime minister be chosen?

The new face of the Conservative party – and therefore, our new prime minister, will be announced on September 5th 2022 and will be elected by existing Conservative Party members (who must have joined the party prior to June 3rd 2022).

Currently, in the running for England’s next PM is Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, after other candidates were knocked out using the process of elimination.

This means that either Rishi or Liz will be elected this September.

If either of the two candidates drop out, it is not guaranteed that a second final candidate will be replaced and the remaining party member may well be automatically elected.
Until the newly elected leader is formally appointed by the Queen, Boris Johnson remains in power and will continue to represent the UK.

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* Please note that the above information has been gathered through secondary research. The information provided is not based on our opinion. You should seek further guidance and information before making an informed decision.

Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boris-Johnson
Tory leadership: How will the new party leader and PM be chosen? - BBC News