Brexit and babies

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson turns 60

Boris Johnson celebrates his 60th birthday.

(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/DOMINIC LIPINSKI)

His blonde hair is artfully tousled as always, his chin is unshaven and he looks a little sleepy. Sure, that's him: "Hello folks, Boris Johnson here." In a video clip, the Conservative politician is campaigning for his party colleague Simon Clarke ahead of the British general election on July 4. 

Otherwise, there is not much to be seen of Johnson in the election campaign - although his Conservatives are around 20 points behind Keir Starmer's Labour Party in the polls. 

There are many Tory members who would like to see the party's probably best campaigner involved much more prominently than with a few cell phone videos. This Wednesday (June 19), the former Prime Minister and Mayor of London, the populist and repeatedly convicted liar Boris Johnson, turns 60.

Suspension forestalled
In 2019, he led the Conservatives to an overwhelming majority of 80 seats. Johnson will not be standing in the upcoming election. Just over a year ago, he resigned his seat in the House of Commons to avoid suspension after lying to Parliament. There is much speculation about his reasons for not standing for election. It has less to do with the fact that Johnson's popularity has fallen due to his scandals and the chaos he caused in government. There are still enough fans.

He is more concerned with earning a lot of money with speeches and devoting himself to his book projects, they say. Others suspect that Johnson does not want to be associated with the disastrous election result that the Tories are heading for. What's more, he wants his intimate enemy and successor Rishi Sunak to fail outright. This is another reason for his support for the outspoken Sunak critic Clarke.

Johnson sees the incumbent Prime Minister, who served under him as Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a traitor who is to blame for his demise in Downing Street. Johnson has never actually said so, but his allies such as former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries leave no doubt that he thinks so.

Wife delights with babies
Johnson lives in a listed property in Oxfordshire with his wife Carrie and their three children - he has four grown-up children from his first marriage to lawyer Marina Wheeler, and a teenage daughter from an affair. 36-year-old Carrie Johnson delighted the tabloids with cute photos of her babies on Instagram.

Father Boris recently provoked ridicule because he was initially turned away at the polling station during the local elections. He did not have his ID with him as required - although he had once introduced the law himself as prime minister. Otherwise, however, things have been surprisingly quiet around the speaker recently.

Political scientist Tim Bale, however, is certain that Johnson will not remain in the political shadows. "I fully expect him to try to get back into parliament at some point to lead the party again and somehow make up for the disaster he represented for the country and the party as prime minister," the expert from Queen Mary University of London told the German Press Agency.

Brexit mouthpiece
What was Johnson's greatest achievement during his time in office? For him and his supporters, certainly having pulled off Brexit, no matter what the cost, as Bale says. Johnson, who resigned as Foreign Secretary at the time, had become the Brexit mouthpiece before the 2016 referendum. The fact that he spread alternative facts about British EU payments without batting an eyelid was of little concern to him.

And how does the political scientist himself see Johnson's contribution? "For me, his achievement is to convince so many colleagues and voters that someone who is so obviously morally, characteristically and intellectually unsuited to the post of Prime Minister should still get the job," says Bale. The fierce response comes as a surprise - and shows how emotional the Johnson appointment still is in the UK.