Boris Johnson has attracted commentary throughout his political career. As Mayor of London, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and in various ministerial positions, Johnson has been considered a controversial or polarising figure in British politics.
Unique aspects of Johnson's image have included his perceived comedic or humorous persona and semi-shambolic appearance. Johnson's supporters have praised him for "getting Brexit done", overseeing the UK's vaccine rollout against COVID-19, as well as providing global leadership following the Russian invasion of Ukraine; conversely, his critics have accused him of lying, elitism and cronyism, with his final months in office mired in a series of scandals.
Johnson's political positions have been described as following one-nation conservatism, whilst political commentators have characterised his political style as being both populist and pragmatic. Johnson's political positions have changed throughout his political career.
Personal image
Often known simply as Boris, Johnson has attracted a variety of nicknames, including "BoJo", a portmanteau of his forename and surname. Biographer Sonia Purnell described his public persona as "brand Boris", noting he developed it while at the University of Oxford.
Max Hastings referred to Johnson's public image as a "façade resembling that of P. G. Wodehouse's Gussie Fink-Nottle, allied to wit, charm, brilliance and startling flashes of instability", while political scientist Andrew Crines stated Johnson displayed "the character of a likable and trustworthy individual with strong intellectual capital". Private Eye editor Ian Hislop has defined him as "Beano Boris" due to his perceived comical nature, saying: "He's our Berlusconi ... He's the only feel-good politician we have, everyone else is too busy being responsible." To the journalist Dave Hill, Johnson was "a unique figure in British politics, an unprecedented blend of comedian, conman, faux subversive showman and populist media confection".
Johnson purposely cultivates a "semi-shambolic look", for instance, by specifically ruffling his hair in a certain way when he makes public appearances. Purnell described him as "a manic self-promoter" who has filled his life with "fun and jokes". Described by Crines as "a joker", Johnson has said that "humour is a utensil that you can use to sugar the pill and to get important points across". Purnell wrote colleagues regularly expressed the view that Johnson used people to advance his own interests, and Gimson wrote that Johnson was "one of the great flatterers of our times". Purnell commented he deflected serious questions using "a little humour and a good deal of bravado". According to Gimson, Johnson was "a humane man" who "could also be staggeringly inconsiderate of others" when pursuing his own interests. Gimson added Johnson has "an excessive desire to be liked".
Biographer Sonia Purnell wrote in 2011:
Gimson stated Johnson "has very bad manners. He tends to be late, does not care about being late, and dresses without much care". Highly ambitious and very competitive, Johnson was, Gimson wrote, born "to wage a ceaseless struggle for supremacy". He would be angered with those he thought insulted aspects of his personal life; for instance, when an article in The Telegraph upset Johnson, he emailed commissioning editor Sam Leith with the simple message: "Fuck off and die." Thus, according to Purnell, Johnson hides his ruthlessness "using bumbling, self-deprecation or humour", and was a fan of "laddish banter and crude sexual references".
Political image
Johnson has been described as a divisive and controversial figure in British politics. Purnell recognised that during the 2008 London mayoral election, he was "polarising opinions to the extreme", with critics viewing him as "variously evil, a clown, a racist and a bigot". Writing in The Guardian, journalist Polly Toynbee referred to him as a "jester, toff, self-absorbed sociopath and serial liar", while Labour politician Hazel Blears called him "a nasty right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends". He was accused of sexism and homophobia by social media users and members of the LGBT community after referring to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as "a big girl's blouse" and former prime minister David Cameron as a "girly swot". Cameron has said of Johnson: "The thing about the greased piglet is that he manages to slip through other people's hands where mere mortals fail."
Some commentators have noted his appeal beyond traditional Conservative voters. In 2011, Purnell described Johnson as "the most unconventional, yet compelling politician of the post-Blair era" and that he was "beloved by millions and recognised by all". Giles Edwards and Jonathan Isaby commented Johnson appealed to "a broad cross-section of the public", with his friends characterising him as a "Heineken Tory" who can appeal to voters that other Conservatives cannot (a reference to the Heineken beer advertisement). Gimson expressed the view that "people love him because he makes them laugh", noting that he had become "the darling of the Tory rank and file".
In 2018, The Economist described Johnson as "the most irresponsible politician the country has seen for many years". In 2019, The Irish Times described him as "a deeply polarising figure, cherished by many older Conservatives but viewed by others as a serial liar and an amoral opportunist who sold Brexit to the British people on the basis of false promises". In 2019, Johnson's former boss at The Daily Telegraph Max Hastings described him as "a brilliant entertainer", but accused him of "[caring] for no interest save his own fame and gratification", criticised his leadership abilities and described him as "unfit for national office". Laura Kuenssberg wrote in December 2021 that public perceptions of Johnson had been damaged by a series of controversies related to Westminster Christmas parties during the COVID-19 pandemic, Owen Paterson, and a Downing Street refurbishment.Boris Johnson: Is 'Planet Boris' finally going to implode? BBC The former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, appearing in a Sky News programme, "The Great Debate", described Johnson as "ritually dishonest" and the worst of the twelve prime ministers he had known, with no redeeming features.
From 2016, Johnson evoked comparisons (both ideological and physical) with United States President Donald Trump. In June 2016, former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg described him as "like Donald Trump with a thesaurus", while fellow Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke described him as a "nicer Donald Trump". Trump acknowledged the comparison, claiming that British people refer to Johnson as "Britain Trump". Johnson was critical of Trump on several occasions before Trump's election; he praised Trump as president, but disagreed with some of his policies. Comparisons have also been made between Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owing to numerous scandals, similar public images and their informal communications styles.
Johnson's leadership has been viewed as the most scandalous of modern times by historians and biographers, with Andrew Gimson, Anthony Seldon and Tim Bale saying that there had not been such a scandalous prime minister since David Lloyd George in terms of scandal, controversy, and indifference to the rules of public life. Seldon noted Johnson's historic "lack of respect for convention and the constitution", while political historian Steven Fielding noted that, while Johnson's personal life was often aired out more publicly than past prime ministers' due to increased scrutiny since the Profumo affair, "the alacrity with which [Johnson] broke rules and conventions and norms that have defined British politics in the postwar period, that is something that is unique", noting that Johnson's behaviour in public office may have set a new low for other prime ministers to emulate.
Veracity of statements Johnson has been accused of lying or making untruthful or misleading statements throughout his career. BBC News described this as a strategy to "bamboozle the listener with a blizzard of verbiage", and a 2021 analysis in The Atlantic suggested Johnson's communication style was a honed political skill that contributed to his popularity. In 2019, The Independent listed his "most notorious untruths", which included fabricating a quotation whilst at The Times for which he was sacked, creating Euromyths while working for The Daily Telegraph in Brussels, misrepresenting events during the Hillsborough disaster while the editor of The Spectator, lying to Conservative leader Michael Howard about his extramarital affair, and promising that leaving the EU would provide £350 million per week for the NHS. The Guardian noted that Johnson "almost never corrects the record in the chamber" and that while Johnson's spokespeople insist he does follow the Ministerial Code of which honesty is part, "No 10 will sometimes acknowledge that an error was made, but more usually brushes aside the complaint or argues that Johnson was misunderstood".
Writing in The Times Literary Supplement, the scholar and former politician Rory Stewart said: "Johnson is the most accomplished liar in public life. Perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie and the bullshit lie." In 2021, the political journalist and author Peter Oborne published a book about the lies told by Johnson, in which he wrote, "I have never encountered a senior British politician who lies and fabricates so regularly, so shamelessly and so systematically as Boris Johnson". Contemporaneous opposition MPs Dawn Butler (of the Labour Party) and Ian Blackford (of the Scottish National Party) have both openly called Johnson a liar in the House of Commons. Laura Kuenssberg, political editor for BBC News, noted that it was "rare for opposition parties to accuse a prime minister, on the record, of lying". In January 2022, Labour leader Keir Starmer accused Johnson of lying about a Downing Street party during lockdown in May 2020. Speaking in the Commons on 31 January 2022, Johnson falsely accused Starmer of not prosecuting the serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions.
Allegations of racism and Islamophobia