What is Boris Johnson doing now?

Much has changed in politics since Boris Johnson won the Conservatives' biggest general-election mandate since the 1980s.

He won the 2019 election with a comfortable majority, but resigned less than three years later, after facing a "mass revolt by ministers" over the "scandals" of his premiership, said the BBC. He soon "cut his losses" and stood down as an MP, before the House of Commons Privileges Committee published its investigation into the Partygate scandal.

Although he may not be in the public eye as much any more, Johnson "wants the attention" and to be "thought of as a current player, not a former one", said The Guardian. A return to journalism, paid speeches and memoirs have kept the 60-year-old occupied since leaving Westminster, but a return to front-line politics is also regularly rumoured to be on the cards.

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The memoir

Johnson released his memoir "Unleashed" in October 2024, billed as a chronicle of his time in office. We should all "stand by for my thoughts on Britain's future to explode over the publishing world like a much-shaken bottle of champagne", he wrote in the press release.

Yet the memoir received few bubbly reviews. It was "less an autobiography than a nearly 800-page staircase argument", said The Economist. Johnson "rambles on", making the book, for the most part, "not good at all".

It did briefly top the bestseller charts but is then "understood to have slumped well below expectations" in sales, and is unlikely to justify the "apparent £2m advance" paid to Johnson by publisher HarperCollins, said The Independent.

To counter the lagging sales, Johnson dressed up as Father Christmas for a video in a "shameless attempt to shift more copies", said The Mirror. The entire "publicity blitz has been a tad unconventional".

Johnson has also taken the book on tour but, in December, cancelled some of his Australian dates in Melbourne because of "unforeseen circumstances", said The Guardian. The cheapest tickets for the Sydney "Long Lunch" he had hosted earlier were $99 without a meal. The most expensive were $995 for a platinum ticket, which included a private cocktail party with Boris beforehand, a meet and greet with a selfie, an autographed copy of "Unleashed" and a gourmet three-course meal.

The speaking circuit

"The afterlife of a modern British prime minister can go one of two ways," wrote Simon Kelner for The i Paper in 2021. "You can be defenestrated by the electorate and then go on to make a large amount of money. Or you can be defenestrated by your own party and then go on to make a large amount of money."

Johnson did the latter immediately after leaving No. 10. The MPs' register of interests for 2022-23 revealed that he could command more than £250,000 for a single speech. After leaving No. 10, Johnson undertook a "lucrative tour of the global speaking circuit", said The Guardian, addressing cryptocurrency investors, insurers and investment bankers.

In just six months, Johnson declared earnings of nearly £5 million on top of the basic MP salary (which was then £84,144), according to the Westminster Accounts tool compiled by Tortoise Media and Sky News. About £3.7 million of that was earned in the first three months of 2023.

A return to journalism

Johnson has been writing a weekly column for the Daily Mail since standing down as an MP in a reported £1 million a year deal, but was also allegedly courted for a return, in an executive role, to The Telegraph, where he first "cut his teeth as a deeply Eurosceptic Brussels correspondent" in the 1990s, said Politico.

That return however depended on a successful takeover of the Telegraph by his former minister Nadhim Zahawi – something that has yet to happen. Insiders claimed the rumours of a Johnson return were just a "gimmick" to "drum up funds", said The i Paper. "Boris still has political ambitions," said one source. "Does he have the attention to detail for a daily editorial role? Probably not."

GB News also announced that Johnson would become a presenter on the channel in late 2023. While he has appeared on GB News since then, he has yet to take up his formal role and it is unclear when or if he will.

A return to politics?

A return to frontline politics has been rumoured ever since Johnson quit as prime minister, and he even received sufficient nominations to contest the Tory leadership after Liz Truss stepped down in October 2022. He ultimately declined to run, saying it wasn't the right time, but there are questions over whether he "really has the 'appetite' to come back", said The i Paper.

The rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK party and Donald Trump's spectacular political comeback in the US has made Johnson's "allies wistful for their former leader". Johnson, though, is "living in domestic bliss and earning far more than he could as an MP", casting doubt on why he would "want to return to the fray".

There has also been talk of his defecting to Reform to lead the advancing party but that has been dismissed as "​​utterly fanciful", given that Johnson has previously said he would "not abandon the Conservatives", said The Independent.