On Wednesday, Boris Johnson began his term as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Here, a look back at how the Inquirer has covered his rise to power.
2001: Johnson’s emergence as a political figure
While working as a reporter in the Inquirer’s London bureau in 2001, Andrea Gerlin wrote about Johnson’s first election.
Johnson is a carpetbagger in Thursday’s national elections, following a time-honored British tradition of seeking office far from home. Unlike the United States, Britain has no residency requirements for candidates, and often little pretense that candidates understand local issues.
Here, many candidates have jumped from seat to seat or have been parachuted into distant districts by the political parties’ central offices in London.
Voters usually accept it, and rarely does the phenomenon become a campaign issue in national races.
“Most people don’t know who their local MP [member of Parliament] is and could care less,” said Patrick Dunleavy, professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics. "They’re voting for the party. "
Out on the hustings, that was clear from many of Johnson’s 70,000 would-be constituents in the overwhelmingly Conservative region. He is already a minor celebrity from his weekly newspaper column and appearances on a current-events television program, and is well-known for his rumpled suits, unruly peroxide-blond hair and clever repartee. To voters, it did not seem to matter that he was born, raised, educated, and spent all of his working life in places such as New York, Somerset, Eton, Oxford and London.
A columnist for the Daily Telegraph and an editor of The Spectator magazine, Johnson, 36, moved here at the request of local Conservative leaders two months ago, leaving his wife and four young children behind in London.
Andrea Gerlin, 2001
» READ MORE FROM 2001: Boris Johnson is leaving home to seek a seat in Parliament
2016: Amid Brexit, Johnson drops out of prime minister race
In 2016, world affairs columnist Trudy Rubin wrote from Germany about Johnson, calling him “a cautionary tale for the U.S.” and a “Donald Trump clone” when he dropped his bid to become prime minister.
Should anyone require further proof that the promises of populists are worthless, they need only watch the latest psychodrama in London.
Boris Johnson, the ex-London mayor and mop-haired Donald Trump clone who led the Conservative Party’s “Leave” faction, just dropped his bid to become Britain’s next prime minister. This was almost as shocking as the voters’ decision to leave the European Union, since Johnson was the face of the Brexit campaign.
But every glowing promise Johnson made before the Brexit vote has been walked back since by leading Brexiteers. Perhaps Boris realized he could no longer fool the voters and didn't want to be around when they got angry.
His political demise, and the swift debunking of his pre-vote claims, are further proof - as if it were needed - that voting for the pap peddled by populists guarantees a rude shock if they win.
Trudy Rubin, 2016
» READ MORE FROM 2016: Boris Johnson a cautionary tale for U.S.
2019: Johnson’s rise to prime minister, following the resignation of Kim Darroch
Three years later, following the resignation of Kim Darroch, Rubin again compared Johnson to Trump, highlight how his popularity reflects the similar fraying of two great democracies on either side of the pond.
The parallels between Johnson and Trump (even apart from their poofy blond coiffures) are astounding, despite the difference between a presidential and a parliamentary system.
First is the similarity of their base. The mercurial, often reckless Johnson is almost certain to be chosen as new leader this month by around 160,000 members of the British Conservative Party, in the wake of May’s resignation as party leader. The members skew older, white, male, and ultraconservative; they are poised to reject a more conventional, Jeb Bush-like candidate, current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (who supported Darroch). This means Johnson will automatically become prime minister until the next general election.
The second similarity is Johnson’s disrespect for facts. (It’s not uncommon to see articles in the British press with titles like “The Most Infamous Lies of Boris Johnson.”)
Trudy Rubin, 2019
» READ MORE: Kim Darroch’s resignation reflects troubles in two democracies
