Boris Johnson | The Spectator columnists & writers

Boris on liberty: the PM has always been against ID cards – until now

‘I loathe the idea on principle. I never want to be commanded, by any emanation of the British state, to produce evidence of my identity.’ From the ‘personal notes’ on Boris Johnson’s website, February 2005 ‘There is the loss of liberty, and the creepy reality that the state will use these cards — doubtless with the best possible intentions — to store all manner of detail about us, our habits, what benefits we may claim, and so on.’ Daily Telegraph, November 2004 ‘The government would love to put issues such as these beyond the bounds of debate by creating an air of national emergency. As far as the Prime Minister is concerned, Britain is at war: with terrorists, muggers and fraudsters. Therefore exceptional measures are required and anyone questioning them is guilty of putting national security at risk.

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal speech

It is four and a half years since the British people voted to take back control of their money, their borders, their laws, and their waters and to leave the European Union. And earlier this year we fulfilled that promise and we left on Jan 31 with that oven-ready deal. Since that time we have been getting on with our agenda: enacting the points based immigration system that you voted for and that will come into force on Jan 1 – and doing free trade deals with 58 countries around the world and preparing the new relationship with the EU. And there have been plenty of people who have told us that the challenges of the Covid pandemic have made this work impossible and that we should extend the transition period and incur yet more delay.

Why England is going back into lockdown

I’m afraid no responsible Prime Minister can ignore the message of those figures. When I told you two weeks ago that we were pursuing a local and a regional approach to tackling this virus, I believed then – and I still believe passionately – that was the right thing to do. Because we know the cost of these restrictions, the damage they do, the impact on jobs and on livelihoods and on people’s mental health. No one wants to be imposing these kind of measures anywhere. We didn’t want to be shutting businesses, pubs, restaurants in one part of the country where incidence is very low when the vast bulk of the infections were taking place elsewhere. And our hope was that by strong local action, strong local leadership, we could get the rates of infection down where the disease was surging and address the problem thereby across the whole country.

Boris Johnson: restoring normality is not enough

Boris Johnson delivered his speech today at the virtual Conservative party conference. Below is the full text of his speech, as he pledged to defeat the coronavirus, build back better and 'improve on the world that went before.' Good morning conference, I want to begin by thanking you for everything you did at the election, pounding the streets in the middle of winter, prodding leaflets through the letterbox and into the jaws of dogs, to save this country from socialism and to win this party the biggest election victory in a generation. I was going to say how great it is to be here in Birmingham but the fact is that we are not in Birmingham. This is not a conference hall, and alas I can’t see any of you in front of me.

Boris Johnson: why we’re putting the brakes on

Two weeks ago, I updated you from this podium on the progress we had made as a country against coronavirus. And in many ways that progress continues: the number of patients admitted to hospitals is still falling, and now stands at just over 100 each day; in April there were more than 3,000 coronavirus patients in mechanical ventilation beds, but now the latest figure is 87; the number of deaths continues to fall. That is obviously encouraging But I have also consistently warned that this virus could come back and that we would not hesitate to take swift and decisive action as required. I am afraid that in parts of Asia and Latin America the virus is now gathering pace, and our European friends are also struggling to keep the virus under control.

Full text: Boris unveils his ‘new deal’

It may seem a bit premature to make a speech now about Britain after Covid, when that deceptively nasty disease is still rampant in other countries, when global case numbers are growing fast and when many in this country are nervous – rightly – about more outbreaks, whether national or local like the flare-up in Leicester. Yet we cannot continue simply to be prisoners of this crisis. We are preparing now slowly and cautiously to come out of hibernation and I believe it is absolutely vital for us now to set out the way ahead, so that everyone can think and plan for the future – short, medium and long term because if the covid crisis has taught us one thing it is that this country needs to be ready for what may be coming.

PM responds to Mark Sedwill’s resignation

Boris Johnson has responded to the resignation of Mark Sedwill, the now former Cabinet Secretary. The full text of The Prime Minister's handwritten note is belowDear Mark, Over the last few years I have had direct experience of the outstanding service that you have given to the government and to the country as a whole. You took over as Cabinet Secretary in tragic circumstances, and then skilfully navigated us politicians through some exceptionally choppy water: a change of premiership, an election, then Brexit, followed by the crisis of Covid-19, where you were instrumental in drawing up the plan the whole country has by now followed effectively to suppress the virus. It has been by any standards a massive contribution – but as PM I have particularly appreciated your calm and shrewd advice, as well as the many useful and amusing notes you have scribbled to me in Cabinet.

Boris Johnson: why you must stay at home

Good Evening, The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades – and this country is not alone. All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer. And so tonight I want to update you on the latest steps we are taking to fight the disease and what you can do to help. And I want to begin by reminding you why the UK has been taking the approach that we have. Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses. And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic health care systems, that is the moment of real danger.

Boris Johnson: it’s time for everyone to stop non-essential contact

Below is a transcript of Boris Johnson's statement on the coronavirus this evening. Good afternoon everybody, thank you very much for coming. I wanted to bring everyone up to date with the national fight back against the new coronavirus and the decisions that we’ve just taken in COBR for the whole of the UK. As we said last week, our objective is to delay and flatten the peak of the epidemic by bringing forward the right measures at the right time, so that we minimise suffering and save lives. And everything we do is based scrupulously on the best scientific advice. Last week we asked everyone to stay at home if you had one of two key symptoms: a high temperature or a new and continuous cough. Today, we need to go further, because according to SAGE [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] it looks as though we’re now approaching the fast growth part of the upward curve.

Boris Johnson: Britain must become the Superman of global free trade

This morning Boris Johnson spoke at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, setting out Britain’s plans for a trade deal with the EU. Below is a transcript of the speech:"It is great to welcome everyone here to Greenwich and I invite you first to raise your eyes to the heavens. The Vatican has Michelangelo. Greenwich has Thornhill who spent 20 years flat on his back on top of the scaffolding, so rigid that his arm became permanently wonky, and he’s left us this gorgeous and slightly bonkers symbolic scene that captures the spirit of the United Kingdom in the early 18th century. This painting above you was started in 1707, the very year when the union with Scotland was agreed – and does it not speak of supreme national self-confidence? Look at these well fed nymphs and cupids and what have you.

Boris Johnson: I was wrong about Russia

Spectator writers, past and present, were asked: 'When have you changed your mind?' Here is the Prime Minister's response: What I’ve really changed my mind on was whether it is possible to reset with Russia. I really thought, as I think many foreign secretaries and prime ministers have thought before, that we could start again with Russia. That it’s a great country we fought with against fascism. It was very, very disappointing that I was wrong.

Boris Johnson: Perhaps my campaign was ‘clunking’. But sometimes, clunking is what you need

You may wonder why I am up at 4.45 a.m. writing this diary when I have a country to run, Queen’s speech to prepare, vast mandate to deliver, and so on. The answer is simple. It is a question of obligation. When I bumped into the editor (at Sajid Javid’s 50th birthday party) a couple of nights ago, he explained — with a slightly glassy expression — that he had taken a gamble. He had already printed the cover of the Christmas treble issue, he said. I know all about the Xmas cover. It is lavish, laminated, and on much thicker stock than the normal cover. It costs a bomb. Once you have printed it, you can’t change it. ‘Your name is on it,’ said Fraser. What could I say? I became editor 20 years ago. I owe this magazine.

Full transcript: Boris Johnson’s speech on the steps of Downing Street

This morning I went to Buckingham Palace and I am forming a new government. On Monday MPs will arrive at Westminster to form a new parliament and I am proud to say that members of our new 'One Nation' government – a people’s government – will set out from constituencies that have never returned a Conservative MP for 100 years. And yes they will have an overwhelming mandate, from this election, to get Brexit done and we will honour that mandate by 31 January. So in this moment of national resolution, I want to speak directly to those who made it possible and to all those who voted for us, for the first time, and those whose pencils may have wavered over the ballot and who heard the voices of their parents and their grandparents whispering anxiously in their ears.

Full text: Boris Johnson’s election offer to Jeremy Corbyn

Boris Johnson has announced that MPs will vote next week on whether or not to hold an election on 12 December. Below is the letter he has written to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, calling for him to back an election. Dear Jeremy, Last week, I agreed a new Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union. This is a great new deal which Parliament could have ratified and allowed us to honour our promises and leave by 31 October. Sadly you succeeded in persuading Parliament to ask the EU to delay Brexit until 31 January 2020. On Tuesday, the Commons voted for our new deal but again voted for delay and, even worse, handed over control of what happens next to the other EU member states. I have repeatedly made clear to EU leaders since I became Prime Minister that I believe any delay to be extremely damaging for the country and my view has never changed that we should leave on 31 October.

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Tory conference speech

It’s great to be here in Manchester at the best attended conference for years and I know that some of you may have been mildly peppered with abuse on the way in but are you abashed? are you downcast? Of course not. We are conservatives and we get on with serving the people and speaking of service I should begin by paying tribute to my predecessor Theresa, I know the whole of conference remains full of gratitude to you, and to Philip May, for your patience and your forbearance, and yes, we will continue with the work of tackling domestic violence and modern slavery and building on your legacy I have been prime minister for only seventy days but I have seen so many things that give cause for hope: hospitals that are finally getting the investment to match the devotion of the staff; schools where standards of reading are rising through the use of synthetic phonics; police colleges where idealistic young men and women are enrolling in large numbers to fight crime across the country; shipyards in Scotland that are building superb modern type 26 frigates for sale around the world; and every one of those high wage high skill jobs in shipbuilding is a testament to the benefits of belonging to the United Kingdom the most successful political partnership in history which we will protect and we will defend against those who would wantonly destroy it.

Boris Johnson: I don’t want an election, you don’t want an election

Five weeks ago I spoke to you from these steps and said that this government was not going to hang around and that we would not wait until Brexit day – October 31 – to deliver on the priorities of the British people. And so I am proud to say that on Wednesday Chancellor Sajid Javid is going to set out the most ambitious spending round for more than a decade. I said I wanted to make your streets safer – and that is why we are recruiting another 20,000 police officers. I said I wanted to improve your hospital and reduce the waiting times at your GP. And so we are doing 20 new hospital upgrades in addition to the extra £34 billion going into the NHS. And I said I wanted every child in this country to have a superb education and that’s why I announced last week that we are levelling up funding across the country and spending much more next year in both primary and secondary schools.

Full text: Boris Johnson launches his Tory leadership campaign

It's a measure of the resilience of this country that since the vote to leave the EU and in defiance of all predictions, the economy has grown much faster than the rest of Europe. Unemployment has fallen to the lowest level since 1972, exports have soared, English football teams have won both the Champions League and the UEFA cup by beating other English football teams, and inward investment has soared to a record £1.3 trillion. It's almost as if the commercial dynamism of the British people is insulating them from the crisis in our politics, and yet we cannot ignore the morass of Westminster, where parties have entered a yellow box junction, unable to move forward or back, while around the country, there is a mood of disillusion even despair at our ability to get things done.

Boris Johnson: leaving on 29 March is the only way to preserve the UK’s self-respect

This article is a edited version of Boris Johnson's speech in parliament today: I myself had sincerely hoped that the government would be able to make the wholly modest changes that this House urged them to make and that there would be no risk that this country would find itself trapped in the backstop, and no risk that we would lose our democratic right to make laws for this country or pass them to a foreign entity for all time - as we are now in danger of doing. But whatever the government tried to do it has not I'm afraid succeeded. No, I congratulate the prime minister and the Attorney General on their efforts. The result is that like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden they have sowed an apron of fig leaves that does nothing to conceal the embarrassment and indignity of the UK.

Diary - 13 December 2018

The nice French doctor looked beadily at the screen. There were the results of my tests, in irrefutable detail. They had taken my blood; they had beeped in my ears; they had covered me in painful hair-pulling electrodes, and now there was no use bluffing. I tried to draw her attention to what I conceived was my Hulk-like strength, the blast furnace super bellows of my lung capacity. She wasn’t having any of it. There was the key piece of data — blinking like a Geiger counter. I have really known it, or suspected it, for decades. In the past few months I have had the joy of being back on my bike, and the reality of my physique has been obvious to all the people who have overtaken me; and when I say all, I mean all.

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Tory fringe speech

Good afternoon my friends and fellow ConHomers. It is great to be here in Birmingham where so many thoroughfares in the city are already named after our superb Conservative mayor. I know this conference is going to be a staggering success because just in the last couple of days about a dozen far left Momentum activists have kindly pledged their loyalty by ringing my private mobile phone. I put them straight on to Brandon. As Paul Goodman might confirm, I am not naturally of a timid disposition. It is not my way to confide my innermost fears. But since this is only a fringe meeting, unlikely to be widely reported, I will reveal that I have one overriding anxiety about the current political scene, both domestic and international.

Diary - 26 July 2018

Surely there is a bit of humbug in this outrage about the two remaining jihadi Beatles, Kotey and Elsheikh, and Sajid Javid’s difficult but correct decision to send them for trial in America. Suppose the grisly pair had been located a couple of years ago in Raqqa. And let’s suppose there was a Reaper drone overhead, and that British intelligence could help send a missile neatly through their windscreen. Would we provide the details — knowing that they would be killed without a chance for their lawyers to offer pleas in mitigation on account of their tough childhoods in west London? Would the British state, in these circumstances, have connived in straightforward extrajudicial killing? Too damn right we would. It was just such a drone strike that vaporised that other ‘Beatle’, Jihadi John, and I don’t remember hot tears being wept for him.

Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, full text

Thank you Mr Speaker for granting me the opportunity to pay tribute to the men and women of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who have done an outstanding job over the last two years, and I am very proud that we have rallied the world against Russia’s barbaric use of chemical weapons with an unprecedented 28 countries joining together to expel 153 spies in protest at what happened in Salisbury. We have rejuvenated the Commonwealth with a superb summit that saw Zimbabwe back on the path to membership and Angola now wanting to join. And as I leave we are leading global campaigns against illegal wildlife trade and in favour of 12 years of quality education for every girl. And we have the flag, the union flag, going up in nine new missions, in the Pacific, in the Caribbean and Africa, and more to come.

Boris Johnson’s resignation letter, full text

Dear Theresa It is more than two years since the British people voted to leave the European Union on an unambiguous and categorical promise that if they did so they would be taking back control of their democracy. They were told that they would be able to manage their own immigration policy, repatriate the sums of UK cash currently spent by the EU, and, above all, that they would be able to pass laws independently and in the interests of the people of this country. Brexit should be about opportunity and hope. It should be a chance to do things differently, to be more nimble and dynamic, and to maximise the particular advantages of the UK as an open, outward-looking global economy. That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.

The tiger and me

I am here in India looking for tigers, and am struck by the way my fellow human beings respond to their encounters —what they want from the whole tiger experience. It is a privilege to see these animals in the wild, and believe me, you can easily fail. Years ago I spent days tracking them at another park, and though the gamekeepers kept up a plucky commentary — pointing to scratches on trees and snapped grass stems that proved ‘tiger was here’ — we saw neither hide nor hair. Here at Ranthambore in Rajasthan, however, it is another story. The leaves have yet to return to the axle wood trees; the guides are expert, cocking their ears for the distress call of the chital deer, and people are spotting so many tigers that they are getting quite competitive, in a way that is revealing of our frail human psychology.

Girl power | 11 January 2018

The world is blessed with a brilliant and industrious UN secretary-general, and it was certainly worth tuning in last week to watch António Guterres deliver his New Year message to the planet. As season’s greetings go, it was not exactly festive. Intercut with shots of attack choppers and bombed-out cities, the UN secretary-general discharged a one-and-a-half minute jeremiad in which we learned that inequality was deepening; global warming was out of control; xenophobia and nationalism were on the march, not to mention war, famine, pestilence and other afflictions, as though 2018 were beginning with a positive cavalry charge of apocalyptic horsemen. He was putting out an alert, he said, a ‘red alert’ on the state of humanity.

Boris Johnson’s Conservative conference speech, full text

As our hearts go out to Las Vegas today we are reminded once again of the attack that took place here only a few months ago, on innocent and music-loving young people. And if there is a message to our American friends it is this: that they will come through it and they will come back from it stronger. Because this city has shown that nothing and no one can bow the indomitable spirit of the people of Manchester, which in recent years has reinvented itself as the great thrumming engine of the northern powerhouse, with its vast potential to generate jobs in finance, in academia, in journalism and the arts – and that’s just the ones held by George Osborne And since our subject this afternoon is how to win the future and build Global Britain I want to introduce our superb foreign office team: Our PPSs Conor Burns and Amanda Milling and our whip David Evenett.

Libya’s best hope

We were in a detention centre for migrants in Tripoli and we came to a big locked door. It was impressively bolted and padlocked. Someone murmured that we didn’t have time to look inside. But I felt somehow obliged to do so. Outside in the sun I had already said hello to about 100 migrants — almost all of them from West Africa: Guinea-Conakry and Nigeria. They were sitting on the concrete in rows, their heads in their hands; the men in one group, and about half a dozen women a little way off. They had been here for months, in some cases, and they wanted to go home. Kwasi Kwarteng and Kim Sengupta consider the future of Libya: ‘J’ai faim,’ said one of the men. ‘C’est pas bon ici,’ said another. When I said that I was the British Foreign Secretary they cheered and clapped, because it is UK cash that is helping them to find a way out.

Brexit means Brexit and we are going to make a Titanic success of it

Thank you very much. You are perfectly right, I had prepared two speeches. As some of you may know, I do like to have two versions for these occasions. Thank you very much, George, thank you very much Fraser. What an extraordinary few months it has certainly been and there have been times where I have had to admit that, like the loyal and faithful hound, Kim, to whom George has already alluded, like him, like the faithful alsatian belonging to Michael Heseltine, there have been moments since June 23rd where I have genuinely feared. In those very grim days after June 23rd, I genuinely feared that I might be strangled by a crazed, pop-eyed Europhile 'Remainer'. And like Kim the alsatian therefore, I am absolutely thrilled to have this reprieve and to have been recognised in the way the Spectator has chosen to do.

The Boris archive: Africa is a mess, but we can’t blame colonialism

This article was published in The Spectator on 2 February 2002 by Boris Johnson, the new Foreign Secretary and former editor of the magazine. You would need a heart of stone not to have been moved by the little Aids-ridden choristers. We sat under a mango tree, before a dancing-space of packed red earth, and what a preposterous delegation we were. There was Mr Rod Liddle, the big white chief of the Today programme, not looking especially kempt. There was Vicky Scott of Unicef, and there was your correspondent, addressed repeatedly by the pleasing title of 'Mr Honourable Johnson'. And as we sat in our armchairs, as though at some durbar, the choir formed in a semi-circle before us: dozens of tiny children in lacy, embroidered dresses.