Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British (British people) Conservative (Conservative Party (UK)) politician and journalist. Currently the Mayor of London, he previously served as the Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament#United Kingdom) for Henley-on-Thames (Henley (UK Parliament constituency)) and as editor (editor in chief) of The Spectator magazine.

Johnson was educated at the European School of Brussels (European School of Brussels II Woluwe), Ashdown House School (Ashdown House, East Sussex), Eton College and Balliol College (Balliol College, Oxford), Oxford (University of Oxford), where he read Literae Humaniores. He began his career in journalism with The Times, and later moved on to The Daily Telegraph where he became assistant editor. He was appointed editor of The Spectator in 1999. In the 2001 general election (United Kingdom general election, 2001) he was elected to the House of Commons (House of Commons of the United Kingdom) and became one of the most high profile politicians in the country. He has also written several books.

Under Michael Howard, Johnson briefly served on the Conservative front bench (Frontbencher) as the Shadow (Shadow Cabinet) Minister for the Arts from April 2004 until November 2004. When David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2005, Johnson was re-appointed to the front bench as Shadow Minister for Higher Education and resigned as editor of The Spectator. In September 2007 he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the 2008 Mayor of London election (London mayoral election, 2008). Johnson defeated Labour (Labour Party (UK)) incumbent Ken Livingstone and was elected Mayor, after which he resigned his seat in parliament (resignation from the British House of Commons). With over a million votes, he received the largest personal mandate (Mandate (politics)) of any politician in British history.