Premiership of Boris Johnson
's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 24 July 2019 when he accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Theresa May, and ended on 6 September 2022 upon his resignation. Johnson's premiership was dominated by Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the cost of living crisis. As prime minister, Johnson also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union, and Leader of the Conservative Party.
Johnson defeated Jeremy Hunt in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election on 23 July 2019, and was appointed prime minister the following day. He re-opened Brexit negotiations with the European Union and in early September he prorogued Parliament; the Supreme Court later ruled the prorogation to have been unlawful. After agreeing to a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement but failing to win parliamentary support, Johnson called a snap general election to be held in December 2019, which the Conservative Party won in its first landslide victory since 1987. During Johnson's premiership, the government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing various emergency powers to mitigate its impact and approved a nationwide vaccination programme. He also responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorising foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine.
In the Partygate scandal it was found that numerous parties had been held at 10 Downing Street during national COVID-19 lockdowns, and COVID-19 social distancing laws were breached by 83 individuals, including Johnson, who in April 2022 was issued with a fixed penalty notice. The publishing of the Sue Gray report in May 2022 and a widespread sense of dissatisfaction led in June 2022 to a vote of confidence in his leadership amongst Conservative MPs, which he won. In July 2022, revelations over his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party while knowing of allegations of sexual misconduct against him led to a mass resignation of members of his government and to Johnson announcing his resignation as prime minister. Following the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Johnson was succeeded as prime minister by Liz Truss, his foreign secretary.
Johnson is seen by many as a controversial figure in British politics. His supporters have praised him for being humorous, witty, and entertaining, with an appeal reaching beyond traditional Conservative Party voters, making him, in their view, an electoral asset to the party. Conversely, his critics have accused him of lying, elitism, cronyism and bigotry. As prime minister, his supporters praised him for "getting Brexit done", overseeing the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme, which was amongst the fastest in the world, and being one of the first world leaders to offer humanitarian support to Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country. Within Ukraine, Johnson is praised by many as a supporter of anti-Russian sanctions and military aid for Ukraine. His tenure also saw several controversies and scandals, and is viewed as the most scandalous premiership of modern times by historians and biographers alike.
Conservative leadership bid
, after failing to pass her Brexit withdrawal agreement through parliament three times, announced her resignation as prime minister on 24 May 2019 amidst calls for her to be ousted. Boris Johnson had already confirmed at a business event in Manchester days earlier that he would run for Conservative Party leader if May were to resign.Prior to his state visit to the United Kingdom, US President Donald Trump endorsed Johnson for party leader in an interview with The Sun, opining that he thought Johnson "would do a very good job." In the Conservative Party leadership election, Johnson won all five rounds of voting by MPs, and entered the final vote by Conservative Party members as the clear favourite to be elected. On 23 July, he emerged victorious over his rival Jeremy Hunt with 92,153 votes, 66.4% of the total ballot, while Hunt received 46,656 votes. These results were announced during an event in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster.
In his first speech as prime minister, Johnson paid tribute to his predecessor Theresa May, and said "No one in the last few centuries has succeeded in betting against the pluck and nerve and ambition of this country. They will not succeed today. We in this government will work flat out to give this country the leadership it deserves, and that work begins now."
First term (July – December 2019)
Initial appointments
On the day of his announcement as prime minister, Johnson handed the role of Chief Whip to "relative unknown" MP Mark Spencer.Andrew Griffith, an executive at the media conglomerate Sky Group, was appointed chief business adviser to 10 Downing Street. Munira Mirza, who was a deputy mayor for Johnson throughout his mayoralty of London, was appointed director of the Number 10 Policy Unit. Dominic Cummings, former chief of the Vote Leave campaign, was appointed in to a role as a senior advisor to Johnson.
Johnson dismissed 11 senior ministers and accepted the resignation of 6 others. The mass dismissal was the most extensive post-Second World War Cabinet reorganisation without a change in the ruling party.
Johnson's key cabinet appointments were Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, and Priti Patel as Home Secretary. Entering cabinet for the first time were Ben Wallace, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Rishi Sunak, and Robert Buckland.
Johnson increased the number of ministers attending the Cabinet to 33, four more than had attended the May Cabinet. One quarter of those appointed were women, and the Cabinet set a record for ethnic minority representation, with four secretaries of state and two additional ministers coming from minority backgrounds. Johnson also created a new ministerial role to be held by himself, Minister for the Union, fulfilling a campaign pledge he had made in the leadership election.
Spending plans
Shortly after he had become prime minister, Johnson's government announced increased public sector spending. In particular, it was announced that an extra 20,000 police officers would be hired, the roll-out of high-speed broadband would be sped up, the funding per school pupil would be increased to a minimum of £5,000 and £1.8 billion for upgrades and new equipment at hospitals. £1 billion of the money for hospitals was money that NHS providers had saved over the past three years and then previously been told they could not spend, rather than being new money.First 100 days
On 24 July 2019, Johnson entered 10 Downing Street for the first time as prime minister. He used his first speech to promise that a Brexit deal would be struck within 99 days, and that Britain would leave the European Union by 31 October 2019, "no ifs or buts".Johnson focused on strengthening the Union within his first few days in office, creating a Minister for the Union position and visiting Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. He gave Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry a right to attend cabinet. On 27 July, Johnson gave a speech at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester where he promised to build a high-speed rail route connecting the city to Leeds.
File:-G7Biarritz.jpg|thumb|right|Johnson with US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Biarritz in August 2019
Johnson's first overseas trip as prime minister was a visit to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 21 August 2019. He visited France to hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron the next day. From 24 to 26 August he attended his first multilateral meeting with world leaders as prime minister, when he travelled to Biarritz for the 45th G7 summit.
Prorogation of parliament
On 28 August 2019, Johnson advised Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue parliament between 12 September 2019 and 14 October 2019, which was given ceremonial approval by the Queen at a Privy Council meeting. The prorogation spurred requests for a judicial review of the advice given by Johnson as the order itself, under royal prerogative powers, cannot be challenged in court. As of 29 August, three court proceedings had been lodged, and one European legal proceeding had begun:- In the Court of Session, Edinburgh, for breach of the Northern Ireland Act 2019 and the European Union Act 2018, by 75 MPs led by Joanna Cherry;
- In the High Court of Justice, Westminster, for an urgent judicial review on the legality of the use of the royal prerogative, by Gina Miller;
- In the High Court, Northern Ireland, for breach of the Good Friday Agreement, by Raymond McCord;
- In the European Parliament, for breach of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, under the process outlined under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union.
Loss of working majority, Conservative MPs and ministerial resignations
On 29 August 2019, Johnson suffered the first ministerial resignation of his premiership, when Lord Young of Cookham resigned as a government whip in the House of Lords.On 3 September 2019, Phillip Lee crossed the floor and defected to the Liberal Democrats following disagreement with Johnson's Brexit policy. This left the government with no working majority in the House of Commons. Later that day, 21 Conservative MPs – including former Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond, and Nicholas Soames – had the party whip withdrawn for defying party orders and supporting the Benn Act, an opposition motion requiring the government to act to stop a no-deal Brexit if Parliament has not backed a deal by 19 October. Johnson saw his working majority reduced from 1 to minus 43.
On 5 September 2019, Johnson's brother Jo Johnson resigned from the government and announced that he would step down as an MP, describing his position as "torn between family and national interest."
On 7 September 2019, Amber Rudd resigned as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and from the Conservative Party, describing the withdrawal of the party whip from MPs on 3 September as an "assault on decency and democracy".