What is Boris Johnson up to now?

In 2019, Boris Johnson secured the Conservatives' biggest majority for 40 years and appeared set for a decade in power.

Since then, Johnson has resigned as prime minister in disgrace, quit as an MP – and Labour won a historic landslide in July's general election, leaving the Tories (and Johnson's political career) in tatters. Now, free from the shackles of parliamentary oversight, he is "being sounded out" about an executive role with The Daily Telegraph, reported Sky News.

Johnson has held "preliminary, informal talks" with his former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi about returning to the "staunch" Conservative-backing newspaper where he was once Brussels correspondent and a "highly paid columnist" – if the takeover bid Zahawi is assembling proves successful. Johnson declined to comment, but with the erstwhile prime minister already writing a regular Daily Mail column and committed to a publicity tour for his upcoming memoir "Unleashed", he may be a little busy.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Speaking opportunities

"The afterlife of a modern British prime minister can go one of two ways," wrote Simon Kelner for the i news site 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 is already doing the latter. 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.

Back to the books 

Johnson could earn up to £4 million from his upcoming memoir through additional publication payments, as well as serialisation, international interest and public appearance fees, "insiders" told the i news site.

"Unleashed", due to be published days after the Conservative party conference in October, claims to be an "unvarnished, uncensored" account of Johnson's career. He has already received an advance of just over half a million pounds from HarperCollins for the nearly 600-page book – but he could "pocket millions more". 

That's if it arrives. Johnson's long-awaited "tome" on William Shakespeare, for which he has already received an advance of at least £88,000, remains unpublished. He agreed a rumoured £500,000 deal with rival publisher Hodder & Stoughton for a book on Britain's beloved bard in 2015 – but the book has yet to be delivered.

"Delivery of the manuscript is the most challenging part of any deal with Boris," an industry told the i news site. HarperCollins is "brave to commit to a 10 October publication date" for his memoir, said arts correspondent Adam Sherwin, and it will need thorough "fact-checking and legal scrutiny", given Johnson's "colourful writing style" said the insider.

Return to journalism

While serving as London mayor, Johnson had a second job writing a column for The Daily Telegraph that reportedly earned him £250,000 a year – an amount that he once famously dismissed as "chicken feed". 

He had to quit the role when he became foreign secretary in 2016, but was immediately rehired by the paper on a salary of £275,000 a year when he left the cabinet two years later.

After he resigned as an MP last summer, Johnson signed a contract for an exclusive column with the Daily Mail in a deal reportedly worth £1 million. He also agreed a deal with GB News to present a series, and to appear as a regular pundit discussing UK and US politics. 

He would "play a key role" in coverage of the UK and US elections, the broadcaster said at the time – but the UK election has been and gone, and Johnson has yet to take up the role.

But Zahawi's reported plan to install Johnson as a global editor-in-chief at The Telegraph has been dismissed as a "gimmick" to help "drum up funds". "Boris still has political ambitions," one insider told the i news site. "Does he have the attention to detail for a daily editorial role? Probably not."

Return to politics

When he stood down in 2023, Johnson told the Daily Express: "We must fully deliver on Brexit and on the 2019 manifesto. Nothing less than absolute victory and total Brexit will do – and as the great Arnold Schwarzenegger said, I'll be back." He predicted a political comeback.

Like many of Johnson's promises, that did not come to pass. Rishi Sunak might have also hoped Johnson would throw his political weight behind the Tory campaign – but Johnson spent much of the run-up to the election on holiday in Sardinia.

He made only one official appearance on the campaign trail, less than 48 hours before the polls opened, and "did not appear with or praise Rishi Sunak", said The Guardian. "He thanked the prime minister for asking him to come, but that was the only mention of Sunak in his speech."

This might explain why Johnson is seen as the UK's most "brat" politician, according to new polling by Ipsos that "serves as an indictment of civilisation in general", said Politico. 

Johnson is most closely aligned with the "hyper-confident, carefree vibe of 'brat'" – a trend that emerged after Charli XCX's eponymous best-selling album, and exploded into global consciousness when the singer tweeted that US presidential candidate Kamala Harris "IS brat".

"It is being edgy, imperfect and confident, as opposed to being polished and having your life together," explained Ipsos. Among those polled who knew a "great deal" or "fair amount" about brat, 19% identified Johnson as a brat politician.