Mrs May's attempt to find a position that unified her warring cabinet took place at Chequers - the prime minister's grace and favour retreat - on 6 July 2016. The speed with which the situation became untenable was dizzying - most obviously for Mr Johnson himself as he appeared to be almost in denial as his premiership fell apart around him. Among other appointments, Johnson made Dominic Raab the First Secretary of State and foreign secretary and appointed Sajid Javid and Priti Patel as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, respectively. The situation unravelled. Though most of the cabinet remained initially loyal, the resignations of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid prompted a wave of departures from more junior ranks in government.

During trips to the United States as foreign secretary, Johnson had repeated meetings with Trump adviser and speechwriter Stephen Miller, which were held off White House grounds and kept quiet from May. During the meetings, Miller and Johnson "swapped speech-writing ideas and tips". [394]But the most serious error during his time at the Foreign Office related to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman imprisoned in Iran. He left City Hall with his reputation intact - a YouGov poll at the end of his second term found more than half of voters thought Mr Johnson had done a good job. But when he gave his final speech before heading to Balmoral to tender his resignation to the Queen, he used a classical reference that alluded to the possibility he might yet return. Journalist Charlotte Edwardes wrote in The Times in 2019 alleging that Johnson had squeezed her thigh at a private lunch in the offices of the Spectator in 1999 and that another woman had told her he had done the same to her. A Downing Street spokesman denied the allegation. [144] [145]

Her partner, Emmanuel-James Alo, 21, a project manager, said: “I don’t think he was doing much for us.” He added: “Jeremy Corbyn, that’s who people want.” Johnson's visit to Turkey from 25to 27September 2016 was somewhat tense because he had won Douglas Murray's offensive poetry competition about the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four months earlier. [342] When questioned by a journalist whether he would apologise for the poem, Johnson dismissed the matter as "trivia". [343] Johnson pledged to help Turkey join the EU and expressed support for Erdogan's government. [344]But this time, the political magic did not work. The mischievous, blundering, charismatic persona that had once been his strength had become a weakness in the eyes of his MPs. Boris Johnson was no longer seen as the winner the Conservative Party had elected him to be. Johnson remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status. [233] In 2009, he rescued Franny Armstrong from anti-social teenagers who had threatened her while he was cycling past them. [234] [235] [236] Policies The New Routemaster bus introduced by Johnson's administration Brendan Clarke-Smith poses for a picture as he receives the AstraZeneca vaccination. Photograph: Brendan Clarke-Smith In the days that followed, Downing Street's account of what Mr Johnson knew about allegations around Mr Pincher changed repeatedly. A poll of party members published on 13June showed Johnson to be the clear front-runner. [425] He received 114 votes in the first ballot of party MPs, [426] 126 in the next, 143 votes in the third and 157 in the fourth. In the last ballot, on 20June, he reached 160 votes and was named one of the final two candidates, alongside Jeremy Hunt. [427]

Even among Johnson fans, the Conservatives may have their work cut out. Harvinder Singh, 44, a business analyst from Uxbridge, “quite liked Boris. I’m quite surprised. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought he was going to get through it.” Now Flynn has received a letter of apology on behalf of the chief constable of British Transport Police (BTP), which says the instruction to cover her T-shirt and the brief detention to give that direction were unlawful. It apologises for any distress caused and gives an undertaking that “the wearing of the T-shirt alone will not lead to her arrest or any direction to cover it”. National measures were replaced with regional tiers, and the prime minister promised a "significant return to normality by Christmas".His first term saw the departures of several senior figures in his administration, while he was criticised for his response to the 2011 riots in the capital. See also: COVID-19 contracts in the United Kingdom and COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom Johnson delivering a press conference on COVID-19, 31 July 2020 Flynn welcomed the police apology and admission that they had acted unlawfully towards her. “I’m thrilled,” she said. “Now I can be confident that I can wear the T-shirt without fear of arrest.” When he returned to London five years later, Mr Johnson became a regular Telegraph columnist and began writing for The Spectator. On 24July 2019, the day following Johnson's election as Conservative Party leader, Queen ElizabethII accepted Theresa May's resignation and appointed Johnson as prime minister. This made Johnson the second prime minister to be born outside the British Isles, after fellow Conservative Bonar Law, and the first to be born outside British territories. [429] Johnson appointed Dominic Cummings, whom he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign, as his senior advisor. [430] Brexit policy Johnson discussing Brexit with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris Johnson signing the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement