Stanley johnson

How Charlotte Wahl Johnson’s troubled life shaped her son Boris

Attractive, accomplished and admired as an artist, friend and mother, Charlotte Wahl’s promising life could have been wrecked, first by cruel sicknesses and then by an adulterous husband. Instead, she bravely defied adversity and found happiness in a second marriage, her four children’s success, her friendships and painting. Her death at 79 will be particularly painful for Boris Johnson, the eldest of her remarkable children. Despite all the pressures, he regularly visited his mother at her comfortable flat in Notting Hill Gate, recognising how much he owed her. In frail health from Parkinson’s and other complications, Charlotte agreed to meet me in September 2019 for the biography I was writing

Stanley Johnson and the Covid loophole

Labour have been taking a cheeky pop at the PM’s father today in the Guardian over new coronavirus regulations coming into force later this month. Under the guidelines from 29 March, people will be allowed to leave the UK to prepare a second home for sale or rent as part of a list of specific ‘reasonable excuses to travel’ outside the country. Andrew Gwynne has dubbed this the ‘Stanley Johnson clause’ in a reference to the latter allegedly breaking Covid guidelines by travelling to his Greek villa to make it ‘Covid-proof.’ In typically partisan style, Gwynne claims that:  For hardworking families facing the prospect of missing out on summer holidays, it will stick in

Tom Bower pulls his punches with his life of Boris Johnson

Tom Bower explains in his acknowledgements that this is not an authorised biography and he did not seek Boris Johnson’s co-operation. Instead, he followed his usual biographical method of interviewing well over 100 people who knew Boris, some named, some not. Obvious sources are his mother Charlotte, his sister Rachel, his first wife Allegra, his long-serving mistress Petronella Wyatt, but not his second wife Marina, nor his current fiancée Carrie Symonds. He also explains, rather coyly: Readers should be aware that Boris Johnson is not a stranger in my home. Veronica Wadley, my wife, has known him as a journalist since he joined the Daily Telegraph in l988… Their long

Stanley Johnson: ‘Of course I’ll go to a pub’

Oh dear. It seems the Prime Minister needs to have a quiet word with his father.  Stanley Johnson, 79, has decided to wade into yet another national debate, this time telling ITV’s Phillip Schofield: ‘Of course I’ll go to a pub if I need to go to a pub.’  Given that his son has warned against all but essential travel, explicitly singling out both pubs and the over-70s in the process, Mr S has got to wonder why on earth Johnson Snr still wants a trip down his local boozer? 

Is Stanley Johnson in need of some technology lessons?

Oh dear. While most of us will have had an embarrassing IT cock-up at some point in our lives, most of us don’t have a Prime Minister for a son. So it was with some sympathy that Mr S saw the news that Stanley Johnson had mistakenly emailed details of a private meeting he had had with the Chinese ambassador to a BBC journalist. What is less understandable is why the 79-year-old is freelancing for the Foreign Office in the first place. The government has insisted that Stanley was not acting at their request. Johnson senior was attempting to relay notes from a discussion he had earlier this week with