Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (/ˈfɛfəl/; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, author, and former journalist who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2019. He was Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. Johnson was Member of Parliament for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and has been MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015. Ideologically, he identifies as a one-nation conservative.
Johnson was born in New York City to upper-middle-class English parents and educated at Eton College. He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1986. He began his career in journalism at The Times newspaper, from which he was dismissed for falsifying a quotation. Later he became the Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, where his articles exerted a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment on the British right. He was promoted to be an assistant editor from 1994 to 1999, and edited The Spectator magazine from 1999 to 2005.