Love him or loathe him, few figures in modern politics have captivated the global stage quite like Boris Johnson. The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, known for his flamboyant personality, razor-sharp wit, and often unpredictable leadership style has left an indelible mark on British and international politics.
In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business while on a visit to the UAE, Johnson brings his trademark personality and candid, perhaps often polarising, perspective to the table – discussing who he feels is the right person to become the next president of the United States, the ongoing tensions in the region, and whether a return to Number 10 is ever a possibility, along with praising the UAE as “the country in world that punches more above its weight than any other.”
From the moment Johnson stepped out of his car in an incredibly heightened security affair, he was clutching his new political memoir, ‘UNLEASHED’, like it was some sort of prized possession. It is little wonder, given his own famously talkative, and often controversial, nature, that this veritable tome comes in at staggering 784 pages, containing, allegedly, all of the answers needed for his interview.
‘Only solution’ to ‘pain and suffering’ is Palestinian state
As a former Foreign Secretary and G7 World leader – Johnson’s visit to the Middle East comes as the region suffers under a brutal conflict that has continued to mire regional stability for over a year. Despite his strong and personal friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu, Johnson agreed he felt “uncomfortable with the level of pain and suffering” Israel has been causing to the people of Palestine and Lebanon and reiterated calls for a two-state solution.
“The only solution has got to be a homeland for the Palestinian people, that has to be the solution. But it doesn’t look likely to happen anytime soon because of the catastrophe that’s been unfolding,” he told Arabian Business.
“What I do believe is that on the whole, notwithstanding the suffering of the people of Gaza, there is a moral difference between the actions of the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas, whose leaders and entire membership is devoted to, not just the extermination of the State of Israel, but to murdering all Jewish people, not just in Israel, but around the world.”
Since the attack on October 7 inside Israel by Hamas, Johnson, like many Western world leaders, positioned himself as a vocal advocate for Israel’s right to retaliate. But it was clear as tensions flare in the conflict that Johnson has raised an eyebrow at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. He believes the people of Palestine need a change in leadership.
“I just wish somehow that there could be a leadership in Palestine, where the people must have a homeland, that could make that essential accommodation and not have an agenda that is so nihilistic and so disastrous. Because if you’re a democratic leader in Israel and your population comes under attack the way it did on October 7, it’s very difficult to do anything except to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
While condemning the violence from Hamas, Johnson also lamented the suffering in Gaza, acknowledging the “great deal of unnecessary suffering” endured by civilians, but insisted that “by and large, I believe it has been the intention of the IDF to minimise human suffering, whereas it has been the intention of Hamas to maximise human suffering.”
Boris: “Do I like Trump? Yes I do, shoot me!”
Despite not having a ballot to cast, Johnson’s thoughts on who should be the next President of the United States are not surprising. The former British Prime Minister is no stranger to American politics – his time in No. 10 Downing Street was overlapped with Donald Trump’s White House years, a man who he says “is much better mannered” than people think.
“I think that those who have a horror of Donald Trump are seriously mistaken because when it came to foreign policy he did a lot of good stuff. On Ukraine, Syria and Iran you can make a pretty good case for what he did when he was in office. He was actually tougher than the Democrats. He’s got a much better international track record than his detractors say,” Johnson told Arabian Business.
He suggested that while the situation across the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were both “very tricky” to fix, Donald Trump has the global diplomatic experience over his opponent. Johnson highlighted how Trump during his time in office: “Bombed Assad’s chemical weapons, wiped out Qasim Soleimani, the IRGC, gave the Ukrainians shoulder-launched missiles, sanctioned Iran.”
“Does this mean I’m optimistic about a Trump Presidency? Yes, it does and I’ve got no embarrassment about saying that. And do I like him? Yes, I do. Shoot me, I do.”
Boris: Millionaires fleeing UK ‘wasn’t happening when I was in charge’
It was his relentless campaigning and so called ‘plan’ to get the United Kingdom out of the European Union that catapulted Boris Johnson to the top job. But many critics, four years on, believe the UK is by no means in a better, more stable position than it was before Brexit. In fact, the countries’ richest are abandoning the UK at one of the highest rates in the world – indeed with many choosing to relocate to UAE in the search for a more attractive option than high taxes, poor value-for-money and changing non-domicile rules.
Notably, in the six-year period after the Brexit referendum (from 2017-2023), the UK lost a total of 16,500 millionaires to migration. However, Johnson is quick to dismiss any link between this trend and his role as the architect of Brexit.
“I totally reject that characterisation,” he told Arabian Business, firmly when asked if Brexit was to blame. “Some people are moving, that’s true, but it was nothing to do with Brexit and it certainly wasn’t happening when I was in charge. What’s actually happening is that because of the change of the non-dom rule, which wasn’t brought in by me but by my successor, and also because of the threat of various taxes going up, people are moving.”
A record number of high-net-worth individuals are expected to leave the UK in 2024, the Institute for Government says this is down to the “hangover from Brexit” with the City of London “no longer seen as the financial centre of the world.”
Would Boris Johnson return as UK Prime Minister?
What’s perhaps unclear in Johnson’s massive memoir is whether a great political comeback is on the horizon. Maybe he’ll wait to see the outcome of the US election and take inspiration from a Trump victory. Or maybe he’s had enough of the brutality of British politics after his dramatic downfall – which he compares in Unleashed to Julius Caesar’s assassination – something which has clearly left scars.
“I would only consider doing anything like that if I thought I could be useful again,” he said.
Hailing Brexit as his greatest success whilst in office, Johnson added: “In Unleashed, I try and tell the story of how it is an argument about freedom and about believing in Britain and the things I wanted to do. It’s about believing in the independence of the country and a certain model of democratic freedom that we needed to get from leaving the EU. By the time of 2019 there was nobody else in the Tory party who could really deliver that.”
On the face of it, Boris Johnson’s odds of a comeback appear slim. His book has received a scathing reception in the UK, with reviewers reprimanding him for his lack of contrition over parties held at Downing Street that breached lockdown restrictions during the pandemic.
On this, he told Arabian Business: “Anybody who thinks, we, I, my officials were setting out to have parties and disobey the rules is living in cloud cuckoo land, it’s complete nonsense.” This issue was one of a long list of scandals that eventually led lawmakers from his own party to drum him out of office.
Instead, living, in his own words, a “very happy life of rustic obscurity,” and having the “freedom” to do what he wants to do – seems a better option for a man cum politician who is by his own accord, Unleashed.
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