From journalist to UK PM: Boris Johnson’s career summed up by the numbers

Apart from his own self-advancement, it is hard to pin down just what it is Johnson believes in

International News: Boris Johnson’s ascension to the job of British prime minister is the culmination of years of scheming and plotting. His buffoonish exterior hides a calculating egotist beneath. Apart from his own self-advancement, it is hard to pin down just what it is Johnson believes in, given his habit of doing and saying whatever is needed at the time to achieve his goals. He has left some clues along the way about his character, though. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers that have characterised his career to date.

14 Years spent in journalism

Johnson’s first foray into journalism was in 1987 when he acquired a job at The Times through a family connection. He was fired shortly thereafter for making up a quote in a story about Edward II.

He bounced back quickly, though, using another one of his connections to land a job at The Daily Telegraph, a publication with which he has been associated ever since. As the newspaper’s Brussels correspondent, he established himself as one of the key eurosceptic journalists. He was regularly criticised for fabrications and untruths, but Boris Johnson was never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story. He has openly admitted that he enjoyed the feeling of seeing his articles having an “amazing, explosive effect” on the Conservative party, which, in the early 1990s, was becoming much more hostile towards Europe.

2. Number of black eyes he was happy for a fellow reporter to receive

While working as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, Johnson was recorded having a discussion with his friend and convicted fraudster Darius Guppy, who wanted to have reporter Stuart Collier physically assaulted..