Rachel Johnson | |
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Born | Rachel Sabiha Johnson 3 September 1965 London, England |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Author, presenter |
Political party | Independent (before 2008, 2019–) Change UK (2019) Liberal Democrats (2017–2019) Conservative (2008–2011) |
Spouse | Ivo Dawnay (m. 1992) |
Children | 3 |
Parents |
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Relatives |
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Rachel Sabiha Johnson (born 3 September 1965) is a British journalist, television presenter, and author who has appeared frequently on political discussion panels, including The Pledge on Sky News [1] and BBC One's debate programme, Question Time . [2] In January 2018, she participated in the 21st series of Celebrity Big Brother [3] and was evicted second. She was the lead candidate for Change UK for the South West England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election.
Johnson is the daughter of former Conservative MEP Stanley Johnson and artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett). She is the younger sister of Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; [4] [5] and the elder sister of Jo Johnson, former Conservative MP for Orpington. [4]
On her father's side, Johnson is a great-granddaughter of Ali Kemal, a liberal Circassian-Turkish journalist and the interior minister in the government of Damat Ferid Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, who was murdered during the Turkish War of Independence in 1922. During the First World War, her grandfather and great-aunt were recognised as British subjects and took their grandmother's maiden name of Johnson. [6] On her mother's side she is a granddaughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights. [7]
Johnson's middle name, Sabiha, means "morning" in Arabic and is often used as a given name in Turkey. It was the name of the second wife of her great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, who was a daughter of Zeki Pasha. [8] Stanley Johnson befriended his paternal half-uncle Zeki Kuneralp, Sabiha's son, when Kuneralp was Turkish ambassador to the Court of St James's in the 1960s.
She was educated at Winsford First School on Exmoor, Primrose Hill Primary in Camden, north London, the European School of Brussels, the independent Ashdown House School in East Sussex, Bryanston School in Dorset and St Paul's Girls' School. [9] In 1984 she spent three months as a kibbutz volunteer [10] and then went to New College, Oxford, to read Classics (Literae Humaniores); [11] there she edited the student paper Isis [12] and graduated with a 2:1.[ citation needed ]
In 1989 she joined the staff of the Financial Times , becoming the first female graduate trainee at the paper, where she wrote about the economy. [13] She spent a year on secondment to the Foreign Office Policy Planning Staff in 1992–93. She moved to the BBC in 1994, but left to move to Washington, D.C., as a columnist and freelancer in 1997. [13]
She has written weekly columns for The Sunday Telegraph , The Daily Telegraph , the Evening Standard and other regular columns for Easy Living and She magazines, as well as the Financial Times. [13] [14] She is a contributing editor of The Spectator and until 2009 was a weekly columnist on The Sunday Times and the Evening Standard, among other publications. She now writes a weekly column in The Mail on Sunday , a column for The Big Issue [15] and a column for The Oldie .
In April 2014 she was a judge in the BBC Woman's Hour power list 2014. [16] [14] She sits on the boards of Bright Blue, the modernising Tory think-tank, and Intelligence Squared, the international debate forum. In March 2014 she appeared in Famous, Rich and Hungry on BBC1. [17] She is a former panellist on Sky News' weekly debate show, The Pledge, production of which was suspended in 2020. [18]
In September 2009, Johnson became the ninth editor of The Lady , a weekly magazine established in 1885. Her first few months were the subject of a Channel 4 documentary entitled The Lady and the Revamp; this was nominated for a Grierson Award. [19] [20] She was replaced as editor by Matt Warren in January 2012. In March 2013 she presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Four entitled How to Be a Lady: An Elegant History. [21]
Johnson's Shire Hell won the 2008 Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, which she described as being an "absolute honour". [22]
Her short story "Severely Gifted" appeared in The Sunday Times on 21 December 2008. [23]
Johnson was a member of the Conservative Party from 2008 to 2011, but later joined the Liberal Democrats in the run up to the 2017 general election because of the Conservative support for Brexit. [24] Johnson then considered becoming a Lib Dem candidate in a seat in the West Country, but was barred under the party's rules, having been a member for less than a year. [24] [25]
In April 2019, she joined the new anti-Brexit party Change UK and was the lead candidate on the party list in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election. [26] She later lamented this decision, describing herself as the "rat that jumped onto a sinking ship" and criticised the party leadership's focus-group attitude to decision-making structure and added that Change UK was a "terrible" name. [27]
Johnson is married to Ivo Dawnay, a descendant of William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe, [28] and maternal grandson of Patrick Boyle, 8th Earl of Glasgow. [18] Dawnay is a director and consultant with the National Trust. They have three children. Johnson lives in Notting Hill in London and Exmoor, Somerset. [19]
Stanley Patrick Johnson is a British-French author and former politician who was Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wight and Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984. A former employee of the World Bank and the European Commission, he has written books on environmental and population issues. His six children include Boris Johnson, who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Gregory William Hands is a British politician serving as Minister for London and Minister of State for Trade Policy since November 2023. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham, previously Hammersmith and Fulham, since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as its Chairman from February to November 2023. Hands has served as Minister of State for Trade Policy under four prime ministers, holding the office on four occasions, and also served as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth from 2021 to 2022.
Michael Andrew Gove is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since October 2022, having previously held both offices from September 2021 to July 2022. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he has also served in various Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Gove has twice run to become Leader of the Conservative Party, in 2016 and 2019, finishing in third place on both occasions. Apart from a period of just over one year, he has served continuously in the Cabinet since 2010.
Justine Greening is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2011, Secretary of State for Transport from 2011 to 2012 and Secretary of State for International Development from 2012 to 2016. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Putney from 2005 to 2019.
Zeki Kuneralp was a Turkish diplomat, who was brought up in exile in Switzerland after the murder of his father, Ali Kemal Bey, during the Turkish War of Independence. After his education he returned to Turkey and, with the express approval of President İsmet İnönü, entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At first taking up diplomatic posts throughout Europe, Kuneralp was later appointed Turkish Ambassador to Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain, as well as twice serving as Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry. He survived an assassination attempt which claimed the lives of his wife and her brother in Madrid in 1978. He retired, in part due to ill-health, in 1979, renouncing the world and current affairs, and turning his attention instead to writing and publishing. His autobiography was translated into English in 1992, while others of his books are considered important sources of twentieth century Turkish history. He died in Istanbul in 1998.
Claire Regina Fox, Baroness Fox of Buckley, is a British writer, journalist, lecturer and politician who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated life peer. She is the director and founder of the think tank the Academy of Ideas.
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson is a British Conservative Party politician and consultant paediatrician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health from September to October 2022. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sleaford and North Hykeham since the 2016 by-election.
Ali Kemal Bey was a British-Turkish journalist, newspaper editor, poet, liberal-leaning politician, and government official who was for some three months Minister of the Interior in the government of Damat Ferid Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He was murdered by paramilitary officers during the Turkish War of Independence.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously was Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
Joseph Edmund Johnson, Baron Johnson of Marylebone, is a British politician and peer who was Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation from 2015 to 2018, and from July to September 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington from 2010 to 2019. He currently sits in the House of Lords. His older brother, Boris Johnson, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2019 and 2022.
Anne Marie Morris is a British politician and former lawyer. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Newton Abbot since 2010. She was elected as a Conservative, though the party whip has twice been withdrawn from her, once from July to December 2017 and again from January to May 2022.
Munira Mirza is a British political advisor who served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 until she resigned in February 2022. She previously worked under Johnson as Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture when he was Mayor of London.
Victoria Lorne Peta Borwick, formally styled by marriagethe Lady Borwick, is a British politician.
Charlotte Johnson Wahl was a British artist. She was the mother of politician Boris Johnson, as well as the journalist Rachel Johnson and the politician Jo Johnson.
Helen Olivia Bicknell Whately is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Social Care since October 2022, and previously from 2020 to 2021. She also served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Faversham and Mid Kent since 2015.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019 to elect members of the House of Commons. The Conservative Party won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6% of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election.
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015.
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