Born Leader

How did Boris Johnson, a man often written-off as an upper class buffoon, manage to win a huge victory at the British General Election? Toby Young, a journalist who has known Boris for 36 years, explains that beneath the jokey, bumbling exterior is a shrewd political operator who knows how to win elections.

At last week’s British election, Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party won more seats than at any time since 1983, at the height of Margaret Thatcher’s popularity. Coincidentally, 1983 was the first time I set eyes on Boris when we were both first-year students at Oxford. In the 36 years since — a period of time in which I’ve got to know him reasonably well — he hasn’t really changed.
He was holding forth at the dispatch box of the Oxford Union, the world famous debating society. With his huge mop of blond hair, his tie askew and his shirt escaping from his trousers, Boris looked like an overgrown schoolboy. Yet with his imposing physical build, his thi ...