Talk:Boris Johnson

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Boris Johnson article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11: 7 days

The subject of this article is controversial and content may be in dispute. When updating the article, be bold, but not reckless. Feel free to try to improve the article, but don't take it personally if your changes are reversed; instead, come here to the talk page to discuss them. Content must be written from a neutral point of view. Include citations when adding content and consider tagging or removing unsourced information.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Boris Johnson was a Social sciences and society good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
January 12, 2005	Articles for deletion	Kept
January 2, 2013	Good article nominee	Not listed
February 4, 2013	Peer review	Reviewed
A news item involving this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on July 24, 2019.
Current status: Former good article nominee

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Guild of Copy Editors

This article was copy edited by Twofingered Typist, a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, on 16 July 2021.Guild of Copy EditorsWikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsTemplate:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsGuild of Copy Editors

Biography: Politics and Government

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as High-importance).

University of Oxford Mid‑importance

	University of Oxford portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject University of Oxford, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the University of Oxford on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.University of OxfordWikipedia:WikiProject University of OxfordTemplate:WikiProject University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Politics of the United Kingdom Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Politics of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Politics of the United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomPolitics of the United Kingdom
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Conservatism High‑importance

	Conservatism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Conservatism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of conservatism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ConservatismWikipedia:WikiProject ConservatismTemplate:WikiProject ConservatismConservatism
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

London High‑importance

	London portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject London, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of London on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LondonWikipedia:WikiProject LondonTemplate:WikiProject LondonLondon-related
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Journalism Low‑importance

	Journalism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Journalism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of journalism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JournalismWikipedia:WikiProject JournalismTemplate:WikiProject JournalismJournalism
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

2010s High‑importance

	2010s portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject 2010s, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of 2010s on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.2010sWikipedia:WikiProject 2010sTemplate:WikiProject 2010s2010s
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

Want to add new information about Boris Johnson?
Please consider choosing the most appropriate article, for example:

Thanks!

Other talk page banners

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 9 times. The weeks in which this happened:

Section sizes

Section size for Boris Johnson (67 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	11,158	11,158
Early life and education	29	15,179
Childhood	7,685	7,685
Eton and Oxford: 1977–1987	7,465	7,465
Early career	17	33,714
The Times and The Daily Telegraph: 1987–1994	8,776	8,776
Political columnist: 1994–1999	6,083	6,083
The Spectator and MP for Henley: 1999–2008	4,785	18,838
Becoming an MP	10,188	10,188
Second term	3,865	3,865
Mayor of London (2008–2016)	71	37,220
Mayoral election: 2007–2008	2,966	2,966
First term: 2008–2012	6,385	22,895
Policies	8,835	8,835
Relations with the police, finance, and the media	6,315	6,315
Re-election campaign	1,360	1,360
Second term: 2012–2016	11,288	11,288
Return to Parliament	2,885	65,749
Brexit campaign: 2015–2016	10,941	10,941
Foreign Secretary: 2016–2018	41,178	41,178
Return to the backbenches: 2018–2019	2,124	10,745
Journalism	4,862	4,862
2019 Conservative Party leadership election	3,759	3,759
Premiership (2019–2022)	678	149,938
First term (July–December 2019)	1,330	21,868
Brexit policy	12,585	12,585
First Cabinet	3,338	3,338
Loss of working majority	3,493	3,493
2019 general election	1,122	1,122
Second term (December 2019 – September 2022)	53	95,595
Second Cabinet	3,682	3,682
COVID-19 pandemic	34,818	34,818
Immigration	2,886	2,886
Legislative agenda	1,823	1,823
2021 Downing Street refurbishment controversy	6,655	6,655
Owen Paterson controversy	4,534	4,534
Partygate scandal	19,649	19,649
Starmer slur controversy	1,712	1,712
Vote of confidence	3,288	3,288
June 2022 by-elections	3,593	3,593
Pincher scandal	4,817	4,817
Mass resignations	3,633	3,633
Announcement of resignation	4,452	4,452
Environmental policies	5,909	5,909
Foreign policy	3,729	25,888
Hong Kong and China	4,122	4,122
Afghanistan	3,281	3,281
UK–EU trade negotiation	4,127	4,127
Russia and Ukraine	10,629	10,629
Post-premiership (2022–present)	15,769	15,769
Political positions and ideology	10,408	25,208
Environment	6,901	6,901
Immigration and the European Union	6,183	6,183
Unionism and devolution	1,716	1,716
Public image	4,537	4,537
Personal life	7,720	37,699
Religion	6,864	6,864
Relationships	14,365	14,365
Family and ancestors	8,750	8,750
Honours	5,924	5,924
Works	1,053	1,053
Notes	24	24
References	15	1,585
Footnotes	29	29
Sources	1,541	1,541
Further reading	1,228	1,228
External links	6,691	6,691
Total	412,676	412,676

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Sylvester, Rachel (7 January 2020). "How right wing is Boris Johnson?". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
Helm, Toby (19 January 2020). "Liberal, nuanced, cautious: is this the real Boris Johnson?". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
Bellack, Marisa; Laurent, Olivier (22 July 2019). "Who is Boris Johnson?". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
McTague, Tom (2021-06-07). "The Minister of Chaos". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
McTague, Tom (2021-10-04). "Is Boris Johnson a Liar?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-18.

Comment: The first three sources may be useful if expanding/updating the Political positions and ideology section. The latter two are fairly balanced profiles on Johnson from 2021 examining his public profile and popularity

Semi-protected edit request on 10 June 2023 (2)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

get rid of mp by his name and hon friba — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vauxhallinsig (talk • contribs)

No, because he is still an MP. See the two discussions of this above. Grachester (talk)

Error in paragraph 2

Paragraph 2 says Boris Johnson was added to Michael Howard's shadow cabinet in 2001, but Michael Howard was not leader of the opposition at the time. Later in the article, it says Boris Johnson was added to the shadow cabinet in 2004 JDawg37 (talk) 15:48, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comment by Queen Elizabeth

In the last few days before her death, the late Queen is now reported to have said of Boris Johnson, who had been replaced by Liz Truss as Prime Minister: "Well at least I won't have that idiot organising my funeral now." This is reported in The Times by Tim Shipman: [1]. Does protocol dictate that this should not be included in this article, even though the Queen is now deceased? Martinevans123 (talk) 11:30, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is it reported as an established fact in the voice of The Times, or as hearsay? -- DeFacto (talk). 11:55, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure Shipman wasn't in the room at the time. So I suspect you would describe it as "hearsay". Martinevans123 (talk) 12:06, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The claim comes from Shipman's latest book, Out, and is given on page 625. The reference is this^[1] if anybody wishes to add it. The information is practically identical to the Times source, as can be expected for a book-pushing piece. Tim O'Doherty (talk) 00:32, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Shipman, Tim (2024). Out: How Brexit Got Done and the Tories Were Undone. William Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-830894-0.

Tim O'Doherty (talk) 00:32, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also appears in: The Daily Telegraph, parliamentnews.co.uk, The Tatler, Daily Exress, SkyNews Australia, etc. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:12, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Shipman 2024, p. 625.

Semi protected edit request on 26 January 2025

Under the subheading of "Public Image" there is a part which reads "and has been compared to former US president Donald Trump."

I propose changing this to "and has been compared to Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the US.

This will allow it to read correctly currently and in the future.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ Zaaaaaac (talk) 13:18, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Has he been compared to Trump in the past six days? That might need a new source to support it, as the current references are dated 2016 and 2021. Otherwise, adding the presidency numbers for Trump seems like unnecessary detail. But I agree the word "former" could go. In fact is might be better to says "was compared", as I think it's unlikely to ever happen again. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:45, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not that I have seen. Would dropping the part about Trumps presidency altogether be appropriate? As I'm guessing most people know who he is. I agree it is unnecessary. "was compared" sounds like a one time thing, "has been" sounds like a multiple (2016 & 2021). Interested in your thoughts as I'm new to Wikipedia editing.

"and has been compared to Donald Trump"

or if the President distinction is necessary, "two time US president Donald Trump" - that reads to me as correct currently and in the future - alleviating the need to edit it yet again for this purpose.

While unlikely to happen I don't see it as improbable, think political articles involving both the UK and US maybe mentioning an event which is connected to the two of them. Zaaaaaac (talk) 14:19, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would strongly advise against editing to include your own personal prediction that Johnson will be compared to Trump in this presidency. If the four existing sources support a number of different instances then "has been compared a number of times" might be better. Perhaps other editors have some ideas. But I'll remove the word "former" for now. Just using Donald Trump might be enough. Thanks for asking here. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:34, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've just noticed that there is a bit of duplication, in the comparison to Trump, across the article. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:36, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[FOOTNOTEShipman2024625-1] Shipman 2024, p. 625.

[1]