Boris Johnson’s fascinating family
Four siblings, two parents and only his mum voted Brexit. Will our controversial PM Boris still mange to win the day despite a wealth of opposition. By LBC presenter Nick Ferrari...
In almost every respect, they’re like any other close-knit, large family. And like so many others, they’ve endured a fair share of divorces, romantic misstarts and professional highs and lows.
What makes this clan different, though, is that they happen to be the Johnson family, with the most famous being Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, better known as our current Prime Minister.
The eldest of four children, Boris was born on 19 June 1964 in New York, where his parents made their home in fashionable Chelsea: an invite to a soirée at theirs was one of the hottest tickets in town.
His father, Stanley, now 79, was a dashing, wise-cracking author who enjoyed successful careers in journalism, banking and politics.
As a young man, Stanley celebrated finishing his studies at Oxford University by buying a motorbike and sidecar and setting off to Afghanistan as he ‘wanted to see the place’. It was when he broke down in Venice, because he’d forgotten to refuel, that he realised he had none of the necessary papers.
He delighted in telling visitors that he counted Ali Kemal Bey as his paternal grandfather, who had been one of the last ministers of the
Ottoman Empire until he was assassinated in 1922, in the Turkish War of Independence.
Boris has cited his Turkish and Muslim ancestry on many occasions, sometimes to avert political disaster or court votes, and this will have been inspired by hearing his father’s brilliant storytelling.
His mother is the acclaimed artist Charlotte Fawcett, 77. Sadly, she has been plagued by crippling depression for which she has needed treatment for much of her life. But her paintings have been described as ‘ hauntingly brilliant with a side so dark only the bravest would think of entering’.
The Johnsons were to be a family almost permanently on the move, so Boris came to Britain as a very young child and split his time between homes in London and the countryside. His sister, journalist Rachel, now 54, was born the year after Boris, brother Leo, 52, two years after that and the final member of the family, Jo, 47, four years after that. It was to be a hugely competitive clan.
Sunday lunches, usually accompanied by plenty of red wine, sometimes broke off for an impromptu cricket match on the lawn, often involving family members or friends who had called by.
No inch was given, as Boris would bowl as fast and as viciously as he could at sister and brothers alike, even if the youngest, Jo, appeared to be barely larger than his bat.
Even today, it is said to be a source of great frustration that Jo is the natural sportsman of the family, who regularly beats the ceaselessly competitive Boris at tennis with ease and also outscores him in the annual family cricket match. One biographer has written that the children would also hold competitions judging who had the blondest hair or the perfect nose.
As politics serves as a magnet to those who crave attention and success, it was only natural that Boris would be drawn to that world, although only after a career in journalism and getting fired from his first job at The Times in 1988. Once again, for Boris, this had a family twist. In a frontpage piece, he misquoted and hugely embarrassed his godfather, historian Colin Lucas, and paid for it with his job.
Just as the thorny issue of Brexit has split many families and workplaces up and down the country, so it would with the Johnsons, but only after one of their biggest public displays of family unity.
Boris likes to pretend he was the last choice left for then party leader David Cameron to select to run as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in 2008. The reality is different. While discussions were being held with a small field of candidates, everyone associated with the election knew Boris would be the star performer. Set against the stale-looking incumbent Ken Livingstone, this was the chance for the Tories, then in opposition, to taste real power. A snap of the four Johnson siblings campaigning on the streets of London, along with their father and Boris’ then wife, Marina, is among their most cherished and they all threw themselves into campaigning for
Boris to win, which he did.
His triumph in the Brexit referendum eight years later did not bring about the same level of celebration. Sister Rachel switched political allegiance to stand for a party that sought to reverse the victory Boris engineered and his fellow Conservative MP Jo campaigned to Remain. His father, Stanley, attended proRemain rallies and his other brother, Leo, was also said to support staying in the EU.
One highlight of Boris’s first speech as PM to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this month was his revelation that his mother had voted out!
Looking on, father Stanley laughed, applauded and turned to Boris’s partner Carrie Symonds and said: ‘Remarkable! Hilarious… I didn’t know that!”
The Johnsons are a hugely competitive clan