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Boris Johnson
210 quotes
“[I will beat Labour and] put Nigel Farage back in his box”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Johnson warns party of risk of Brexit 'extinction', BBC News (5 June 2019)
“We will not be forgiven if we do not deliver Brexit on October 31”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Johnson warns party of risk of Brexit 'extinction', BBC News (5 June 2019)
“We need to realise the depth of the problems we face. Unless we get on and do this thing, we will be punished for a very long time. There is a very real choice between getting Brexit done and the potential extinction of this great party.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Johnson warns party of risk of Brexit 'extinction', BBC News (5 June 2019)
“I believe I am best placed to lift this party, beat Jeremy Corbyn and excite people about conservatism and conservative values.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Johnson warns party of risk of Brexit 'extinction', BBC News (5 June 2019)
“[The backstop is a "monstrosity" that wipes out the UK's sovereignty and is] being used to coerce the UK into becoming a vassal state of Brussels”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership hopefuls set out Brexit Irish backstop policy, BBC News (11 June 2019)
“[I am] not aiming for a no-deal [Brexit] outcome”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Boris Johnson says he is 'not aiming for no deal', BBC News (12 June 2019)
“[I will take the UK out of the EU by Halloween] come what may, do or die”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt divided over Brexit plans, BBC News (26 June 2019)
“If you Brexit sensibly and effectively, you take away so much of the ammunition of the SNP.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tory leadership: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt on Scotland, BBC News (27 June 2019)
“We should actively campaign for a public understanding of the benefits of the [UK] union, economic and strategic, for the people and its component nations,”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt pledge to safeguard union, BBC News (30 June 2019)
“Interviewer: Can you give an example, in your political life, when you've set your own self-interest aside for the benefit of the country? Boris Johnson: Well, er, pfft, um, it's a good question, but er, I, I, I would, you know, I don't, obviously, it's an embarrassing but, but true that, um, er, it is obviously, possible, er, how should I put this, to make more money, er, by not being a full-time politician. Um, I don't, I don't want to put too finer point on it, er, but, you know, you have to, you have to, you have to, make sacrifices sometimes.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conservative Leadership Contest Hustings in Darlington, Channel 4 News/Twitter (5 July 2019)
“Andrew Neil: You talk about article 5B in . Boris Johnson: Article 24, get it right Andrew, it's article 24, paragraph 5B. Andrew Neil: And how would you handle paragraph 5C? Boris Johnson: I would confide entirely in paragraph 5B. Andrew Neil: But how would you get round what's in 5C? Boris Johnson: I would confide entirely in paragraph 5B which is enough for out purposes. Andrew Neil: Do you know what is in 5C? Boris Johnson: No.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Andrew Neil tests Boris Johnson's knowledge of GATT 24, BBC News (12 July 2019)
“[I will] deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson wins race to be Tory leader and PM, BBC News (23 July 2019)
“We are going to energise the country. We are going to get Brexit done on 31 October and take advantage of all the opportunities it will bring with a new spirit of can do. We are once again going to believe in ourselves, and like some slumbering giant we are going to rise and ping off the guy ropes of self doubt and negativity.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson wins race to be Tory leader and PM, BBC News (23 July 2019)
“Under no circumstances would we agree to any free-trade deal that put the NHS on the table.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: Premiership will be the start of a golden age, BBC News (25 July 2019)
“We want to, and we are going to, deliver on the mandate of the people, which is to take the UK out of the EU whole and entire on 31 October”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson 'absolutely' rules out pre-Brexit election, BBC News (26 July 2019)
“[The Irish border backstop would] keep us locked in EU regulatory orbit, locked in the EU trading system, unable to control our own laws”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Boris Johnson calls for 'common sense' compromise, BBC News (8 August 2019)
“Preparing urgently and rapidly for the possibility of an [EU] exit without a deal will be my top priority, and it will be the top priority for the civil service too.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No-deal Brexit preparations 'top priority', Boris Johnson says, BBC News (9 August 2019)
“MPs should "honour the mandate of the people" by leaving the EU.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Corbyn seeks clarity on 'unconstitutional' election-time no-deal, BBC News (9 August 2019)
“There's a terrible kind of collaboration as it were, going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson: Brexit opponents 'collaborating' with EU, BBC News (14 August 2019)
“[The Irish border backstop is] inconsistent with the sovereignty of the UK”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Boris Johnson says 'anti-democratic' backstop must be scrapped, BBC News (20 August 2019)
“I do think they [the EU] understand there's an opportunity to do a deal. I think it's going to be touch and go.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Johnson accused of ‘gaslighting’ voters amid claims he offered nothing new in EU meeting, The Independent (26 August 2019)
“I just say to everybody in the country, including everyone in Parliament, the fundamental choice is this: Are you going to side with Jeremy Corbyn and those who want to cancel the referendum? Are you going to side with those who want to scrub the democratic verdict of the people - and plunge this country into chaos. Or are you going to side with those of us who want to get on, deliver the mandate of the people and focus with absolute, laser-like precision on the domestic agenda?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Michel Barnier rejects demands for backstop to be axed BBC News (1 September 2019)
“[I would] rather be dead in a ditch [than ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 31 October]”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: PM: I'd rather be dead in ditch than delay Brexit BBC News (5 September 2019)
“I've looked carefully at no deal, I've assessed its consequences, both for our country and yours, and yes, of course, we could do it, the UK could certainly get through it, but be in no doubt that the outcome would be a failure of statecraft.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnson tells Varadkar no-deal Brexit 'would be a failure' BBC News (9 September 2019)
“Man: The NHS has been destroyed. It's been destroyed. It's been destroyed, and now you come here for a press opportunity. Boris Johnson: Well actually there's no press here. Man: [Points at camera crew] What do you mean there's no press here?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boris Johnson confronted on east London hospital visit (18 September 2019)
“I've never heard such humbug in all my life.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to an MP's description of being subject to death threats and abuse, BBC News (25 September 2019)
“We have got a deal, oven-ready, by which we can leave the EU in a few weeks. It’s a great deal for this country. It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lies, Falsehoods and Misrepresentations from Boris Johnson to Keir Starmer, Political Lies (6 November 2019)
“Let's get Brexit done, but first my friends let's get breakfast done.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Let's get Brexit done, but first my friends let's get breakfast done' says PM Boris Johnson, Manchester Evening News (13 December 2019)
“I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is... our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, at a press conference, as quoted in U.K. Leader Boris Johnson Boasts He Has Shaken Hands With Coronavirus Patients by Khaleda Rahman, 3 March 2020, .
“I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Coronavirus: Up to fifth of UK workers 'could be off sick at same time, 3 March 2020, .
“We are embarked now on a great voyage, a project that no one thought in the international community that this country would have the guts to undertake, but if we are brave and if we truly commit to the logic of our mission - open, outward-looking - generous, welcoming, engaged with the world championing global free trade now when global free trade needs a global champion. I believe we can make a huge success of this venture, for Britain, for our European friends, and for the world.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Old Naval College Greenwich after Britain’s departure from the EU, 3rd Feb 2020
“We have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (30 April 2020)
“At this stage I do not think that the international comparisons and the data are yet there to draw the conclusions that we want.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prime Minister's Questions (6 May 2020)
“I am meant to be in control. I am the Führer. I’m the king who takes the decisions.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported comment as cited by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell in Johnson at 10: The Inside Story] (Atlantic Books, 2023) reprinted in "'I’m the Führer, the king': inside Boris Johnson’s chaotic world" The Sunday Times …
“[The Conservative Party] thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just Nature's way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them. A lot of moderate people think it is a bit too much.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported comment to Sir Patrick Vallance (recorded in his notes) during December 2020 revealed at the UK's COVID Inquiry, as cited in "'Nature’s way of dealing with old people': the damning messages revealed to Covid in…
“We have to recognise that the old concepts of fighting big tank battles on European land mass are over, and there are other, better things we should be investing in, in FCAS, in the future combat air system, in cyber, this is how warfare in the future is going to be.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At the Liaison Committee of the House of Commons (17 November 2021) in response to Tobias Ellwood (Conservative MP and chairman of the Defence Select Committee) querying a decline in British army tank deployment, cited …
“No more fucking lockdowns - let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reportedly said by Johnson in a government meeting in October 2021, as cited in "UK denies that Johnson said 'let the bodies pile high'" Reuters (26 April 2022)
“I just think it's time for some of our dearest friends to "prenez un grip" and "donnez-moi un break".”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I repeat, Mr. Speaker, that I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party, and that no COVID rules were broken.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement in the House of Commons (8 December 2021)
“I can tell you; I DO brush it! I have a comb in my office!”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnson to BBC Reporter (2021)
“I believed implicitly that this was a work event. But Mr. Speaker, with hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside, I should have found some other way to thank them, and I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidelines, there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement in the House of Commons (12 January 2022)
“I am not going to mince my words. I have got to say this. Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards that he demanded of me.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]f we took away the whip from everyone here [in the House of Commons] who's pinched someone's bottom, we'll lose our majority.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said "in the heat of the moment", according to Johnson's former communications director Guto Harri reportedly during the Chris Pincher scandal (c. July 2022), as cited in "Boris Johnson joked UK Tories would lose majori…
“He [Vladimir Putin] threatened me at one point, and he said, "Boris, I don't want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute" or something like that. Jolly. But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ukraine: Boris Johnson says Putin threatened him with missile strike" BBC News (30 January 2023)
“To those who say we may be denuding our own arsenals by giving the support, I say what is the point in deploying tanks and planes in North Carolina or North Rhine-Westphalia when Ukrainians could be using them now, where they are needed to help assure our collective security for decades?”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech delivered to the Atlantic Council cited in "Boris Johnson calls on US to give Ukraine fighter planes" The Guardian (1 February 2023)
“I believe that, once this war is done, once the Ukrainians have won, then yes they should begin the process of induction both to Nato and to the EU.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the same speech delivered to the Atlantic Council cited in "Brexit allowed UK to 'do things differently' in supporting Ukraine, says Johnson" The Independent (2 February 2023)
“[In March 2021, I] had commissioned some work on whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[After consultations] I secretly agreed with what they all thought, but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Passages from Unleashed, as cited in "Boris Johnson: we considered 'aquatic raid' on Netherlands to seize Covid vaccine", The Guardian (28 September 2024)
“Frankly, once I pulled the carpets out of the flat in No 11, which is where we lived … the whole thing was looking a bit like a crack den, to be totally honest, and it needed to be refurbished.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview on LBC (8 October 2024), as cited in "Boris Johnson says Downing Street flat looked like a crack den", The Times (8 October 2024)
“We're waging a proxy war (Russian invasion of Ukraine), but we're not giving our proxies the ability to do the job. For years now, we've been allowing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs and it has been cruel.”
Boris Johnson (born 1964) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our troops should help defend Ukraine’s border in possible ceasefire, says Boris Johnson (Archived), Telegraph (28 November 2024)