Stacey Solomon grills Boris Johnson about women’s education, his sister Rachel and dad Stanley

STANDING in the very grand Ambassadors’ meeting room in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office just a street along from the PM’s house, TV presenter and Fabulous columnist Stacey Solomon squeezes Boris Johnson tightly in a bear hug as they pose for the camera.

So far they’ve discussed home-schooling – Stacey, 28, recently confessed she’d taken her sons Zachary, 10, and Leighton, five, out of school, while Boris, 53, revealed he was home-schooled for a year as a child.

And they’ve touched upon Boris’ father Stanley’s appearance the previous day on Loose Women talking about his new book.

However, today, the main topic between the pair is the Foreign Secretary’s global initiative: Leave No Girl Behind – 12 Years of Quality Education, after his office got in touch to say he was keen to tell Fabulous readers all about it.

And who better to grill him than our very own columnist Stacey Solomon? Here’s how they got on…

Stacey: So never in my life did I think I would be sitting here interviewing Boris Johnson!

Boris: I never thought I would have the chance to talk to you, Stacey. I am very honoured.

S: Can you tell the Fabulous readers a little about your campaign?

B: It’s a very simple idea – we want 12 years’ quality education for every girl in the world.

We need governments to move beyond tackling the provision of a basic education and we think 12 years does that.

It’s about tackling what I think is the most fundamental problem in the world today, and I know that some readers will ask: “Why on earth should I care about what’s going on with education for girls outside the UK?” but it’s massively beneficial.

S: In what way?

B: We can’t isolate ourselves from the massive tides of migration we see across the world, or terrorism, poverty and the disasters that follow.

All of those things are associated with not educating girls properly and them feeling alienated. In parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, female illiteracy is as high as 72%.

In Pakistan that figure is 57%, and even in India, 37% of women are illiterate.

S: So you’re saying the initiative could stop immigration?

B: When you’ve got people unable to read or write, they’re not going to have well-paid jobs and can’t take part in the economy properly. You’re immediately handicapping the prospect of that country to develop, which has a huge knock-on effect for us. We’ve all seen it happening over the last few years: big tides of people coming across all the way through to Calais.

That’s being driven by the economic and political problems of Africa. Educating girls would create societies that are richer and more stable.

That’s why I’ve asked 52 of the key countries of the world to commit and make this initiative one of their key ambitions. It was quite difficult to negotiate, but I think we have a good agreement.

S: This project didn’t start with you though, did it?

B: You’re right, and I pay tribute to Malala Yousafzai. She heroically decided to take on the Taliban – the evil morons who wanted to deprive women of educational opportunities – and took them on morally, politically and intellectually.

She paid a price for it [Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban], but she’s still fighting.

She really launched the campaign for 12 Years [in 2013], and she’s right, this is totally the right thing to do.

S: The target is to achieve the initiative by 2030, although this has already been moved back from 2015. Do you believe you can actually reach this new deadline?

B: I am absolutely passionate about it. The problem in the world is that we have too many countries run in an essentially chauvinistic way by governments who are willing to turn a blind eye to the economic progression of women. But that’s a disaster for those countries.

S: Is it difficult trying to convince other countries of the importance of valuing women as much as men when even in the UK we’re not paying women the same amount of money as guys for doing the same job? You’re talking about leading by example, but we’re still not in a state of equality ourselves…

B: Yes, there are problems to do with the pay gap, a lot of which the government is trying to address by getting transparency about pay – which I think is completely right, and I encourage much greater equality in the workplace. But if you’re not even educating girls so they can read and write, that is a fundamentally different problem. You need deep social change within countries to stop being so sexist.

S: How do you do that?

B: You keep talking about it, you show leadership. It’s all about tackling sexism and discrimination.

S: But even we’re not where we should be when it comes to that!

B: Stacey, I agree with that. The problems we have in our own country are very considerable and we have to deal with those, but they are nothing compared to the scale of the problems with the rest of the world and we cannot ignore those problems. If we do they will come back and hit us.

S: I want to ask you about your dad Stanley…

B: He always sends clips of himself to the rest of the family – we have a WhatsApp group.

S: He’s a lovely man and the public find him endearing, but does it ever feel like it goes against you as a politician?

Is it strange that you are in such a high position in politics and your dad is in the Australian jungle and going on Made In Chelsea?

B: I think it’s fantastic, provided he is championing female education at all times, which I think he is!

He most important thing that happened in my life was the birth of my sister Rachel, 18 months after I was born. It was a colossal shock.

I was the centre of everything and suddenly she was born and life became very different.

It was better and exciting, and I had someone to play with all the time. Since then, all my life has really been about is…

S: Family?

B: Keeping ahead of Rachel! That’s basically been the objective. My family were pretty ruthlessly egalitarian. It was quite obvious she’s just as clever as me in every possible way – if not cleverer – so why on earth would there be discrimination and distinction made between boys and girls in the way there is?

S: I think that because of your personality and your family being in reality shows [Rachel was on Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year] it makes you seem more approachable.

B: I am very jealous I can’t get on those shows. I have never been invited on I’m A Celebrity!, I don’t think. I was asked to go on Strictly, but it was a long time ago.