Boris Johnson: biography

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British Conservative politician, journalist and Mayor of London since 2008.

Parental origins, education and marriages

Parental origins Boris Johnson was born 19 June 1964 in New York, USA. By his father's right, he is a relative of the royal family of Great Britain and the great grandson of Ali Kemal Bey - a liberal Turkish journalist and the interior minister in the government of the Ottoman Empire’s Grand Vizier, Damato Ferit-Pasha.
Boris’s father, Stanley Johnson, was a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1984. Education - In the early 1970s, Boris began primary education in the European school in Brussels. Later, he continued his education at Ashdown House Preparatory School and then at Eton College. - In 1983-1984, he studied at Balliol College of Oxford University.
Citizenship origins Born in New York, Johnson has had simultaneously double citizenship of Great Britain and USA. However, in 2006, he said that he refuses to have American citizenship bestowed upon him.
Marriages Johnson was married twice. He has four children from his second marriage.

Career

Journalism career
- He worked at such newspapers as The Times (1987), The Daily Telegraph (1987-1999) and The European Community (1989-1994).
- From 1994 to 1995, Boris worked as a political columnist of The Spectator, from 1995 to 1999 he was an assistant editor and from 1999 to 2005 worked as an editor in chief.
- In 1998, he began working in the BBC programme «Have I Got News for You».
Political career - In 2001, Johnson was elected to the House of Commons from the Conservative Party for the District of Henley-on-Thames.
-In November 2003 he was assigned as a vice-chairman of the Party, and in May of 2004 he became a "shadow" minister of Culture. In November 2004, Johnson was dismissed from both positions after the scandal of his extramarital affairs.
- In December 2005, Johnson was named Minister of Higher Education of the British Parliament’s 'shadow cabinet'. He resigned from that post on 16 July 2007, to run for Mayor of London from the Conservatives. He was approved and received 75% of the vote in the primary party elections on Sept. 27, 2007. Remarkable actions One of the first actions of Johnson as Mayor of London was a ban of drinking alcohol in public transport. Johnson also said that he did not intend to expand the area of paid entry into central London. Instead, he meant to cut down this collection in a half. That would lead to a rise in the price of public transport, which is partly funded from fees charged for entry into the center of the British capital.