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BRITAIN-POLITICS-MEDIA
UK’s Boris Johnson returns as Telegraph columnist
LONDON, July 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – After resigning as foreign minister last
week over Prime Minister Theresa May’s compromise plan for Brexit, Boris
Johnson is back at his old job as a columnist at the eurosceptic Daily
Telegraph newspaper.
“He’s Back,” the paper said on its front page on Monday.
Johnson was named foreign minister in July 2016 after playing a leading
role in the Brexit referendum campaign.
He was forced to give up his regular columns, which a spokesman said were
“inappropriate” for his new role.
When he gave up the newspaper job he also had to renounce the salary of
£275,000 (311,000 euros, $365,000) that went with it for a more modest
ministerial income of £143,789.
The 54-year-old Johnson, who is famous for his frequent gaffes and off-
colour quips, started his career as a journalist and has worked on and off
for the Daily Telegraph for 20 years.
He was a Brussels correspondent for the newspaper between 1989 and 1994,
becoming famous for virulently eurosceptic articles, after being sacked by
The Times for making up a quote.
During two years in government, he still penned around 20 articles for the
Telegraph in which he often undermined May’s position and called for a more
hardline approach to Brexit.
Johnson dramatically resigned on July 9 saying that the Brexit “dream is
dying” and warning that May’s latest plan risked turning Britain into a
“colony” of the European Union.
In his article on Monday he appealed for people to take a more positive
view of Britain’s prospects outside the EU but otherwise largely avoided the
issue, saying he would resist “for now” the temptation to “bang on about
Brexit”.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1801 hrs