Rishi Sunak’s allies declared it the “end of the road” for Boris Johnson when a damning report concluded he had lied to parliament on an “unprecedented” scale over Partygate.
The prime minister is hoping that, after a vote to endorse the report’s findings on Monday, he will be able to get on with the job and no longer worry about the distractions of his predecessor.
So alarm bells will have been ringing in Downing Street when a Boris-shaped silhouette was printed on the Daily Mail’s front page as the paper teased the former PM as its new “erudite” columnist.
He has since been confirmed in the role, using his first column to detail how a weight-loss drug did not work well for him.
Those in Mr Sunak’s camp will also have seen speculation that the former prime minister is considering a bid to return as London mayor – which would pit him against one of the shortlisted Conservative candidates for next year’s contest.
Mr Johnson’s former aide Guto Harri said it would be a “great idea” for his old boss to run, but his former communications director at City Hall, Will Walden, poured cold water on the rumours, saying the former PM “only runs for things if he knows he can win”.
Longer term, Mr Johnson’s backers, including former prime minister Liz Truss, have urged the public to “never write off” Mr Johnson. His successor as PM – who lasted just 49 days in the job – was confident that people “will hear more” from him.
So, what next for Boris Johnson?
Speculation is rife that Mr Johnson could spend his time giving lucrative speeches and penning columns – and that he could even finish a biography of Shakespeare that he signed a £500,000 deal to write almost a decade ago.
After this, the former PM could mount his comeback. If the Conservatives lose next year’s general election, Mr Johnson could seek to return to the party as its saviour and attempt to lead it out of opposition – though it might prove a challenge to get that far.
Expanding his family
Political plotting aside, Mr Johnson has a lot on his plate. The 58-year-old and his third wife, Carrie, are expecting their third child together. Their son, Wilfred, was born in April 2020, with their second, daughter Romy, following in December 2021.
Ms Johnson, 35, confirmed last month that she was pregnant with the couple’s third child, saying: “New team member arriving in just a few weeks. I’ve felt pretty exhausted for much of the last 8 months but we can’t wait to meet this little one.”
The family, along with their dog, Dilyn, a Jack Russell cross, recently moved into the grade II-listed Brightwell Manor in Oxfordshire, which was listed for sale at £4m.
It is believed that in total Mr Johnson has eight children, but he has not officially confirmed the exact number.
Mr Johnson and his second wife, Marina Wheeler, who separated in 2018, have four children together: Lara Lettice, 27, Milo Arthur, 25, Cassia Peaches, 23, and Theodore Apollo, 21. Mr Johnson also has a fifth child, Stephanie Macintyre, who was conceived as a result of an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre.
Making – and writing – headlines
Despite his extensive family responsibilities, there is no doubt that Mr Johnson will find a way to stay in the headlines. Here we look back at how, whatever the job, the former PM has always found his way into the spotlight.
Mr Johnson was fired from his first job, at The Times, for making up a quote about Edward II’s “catamite” lover and attributing it to his godfather, the Oxford historian Colin Lucas.
He went on to find his voice during a five-year stint as a Brussels-based foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, before returning to the UK as one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite commentators.
Whilst in Belgium, Mr Johnson wrote that the EU wanted to standardise coffins, the smell of manure, and the size of condoms (and had rejected an Italian request to make undersized ones). He warned Britons that their prawn-cocktail-flavoured crisps could be banned, that their sausages were under threat, and that their fishermen would be required to wear hairnets.
He returned to London as the paper’s chief political columnist, where his often controversial pieces included references to citizens of the Commonwealth as “flag-waving piccaninnies” and Congolese people as having “watermelon smiles”.
Alongside his work for the Telegraph, Mr Johnson wrote a column for The Spectator and reviewed cars for GQ – though his former editor claimed he had racked up £4,000 in parking fines.
His political career
Mr Johnson’s political career began with a tilt at the safe Labour seat of Clwyd South, in north Wales, where he lost as the Conservative candidate in 1997.
He enjoyed a stint as the MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008 before becoming a political star as the mayor of London.
Beating the incumbent Ken Livingstone, his tenure in a city that was largely Labour-leaning was notable, and he occupied that office during the 2012 Olympics, considered a triumph for the host city.
Mr Johnson famously stole the show on the day of Britain’s first gold medal of the games, becoming stuck on a zipwire while holding two union flags and wearing a hard hat.
His path to the premiership was sealed by his backing of the Brexit campaign in 2016, which rocked the leadership of prime minister David Cameron, left Theresa May in deadlock, and created the conditions for Mr Johnson to take the top job.
His subsequent downfall as prime minister, just three years after winning a landslide 80-seat majority for the Conservatives in 2019, was short and devastating.
But it has paved the way for Mr Johnson to try his hand at something else.
His new ventures have already got off to a rocky start. The chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), Eric Pickles, warned on Friday that the committee will be writing to Mr Johnson about his failure to give sufficient notice of his new role as a Daily Mail columnist.
Former ministers who have left the government in the previous two years must apply to Acoba before taking up a new appointment or role. The committee said it was told just 30 minutes before Mr Johnson’s appointment was announced.
An Acoba spokesperson said: “We haven’t had an application and we will be writing to Mr Johnson.”
