OH BROTHER
Who is Jo Johnson? Boris Johnson’s brother who has quit as Tory MP and minister
BORIS Johnson's brother Jo has announced he is to quit as an MP after serving as minister in his sibling's Government.
The MP for Orpington backed Remain in the 2016 referendum but he quit over Theresa May's Brexit plan. Here's the latest on his resignation.
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Who is Jo Johnson?
Joseph Edmund Johnson is Boris Johnson's younger brother and a former Government minister.
The 47-year-old was elected the Member of Parliament for Orpington in the General Election in May 2010, and re-elected in 2015 and 2017.
From April 2013 to May 2015, he was the Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, and became Minister of State for the Cabinet Office in July 2014.
Following the May 2015 general election, Jo Johnson became the Minister for Universities and Science.
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He served as the Minister for London in Theresa May's Government.
In January 2018, he became the Minister of State for the Department of Transport until his resignation on November 9, 2018 over Mrs May's Brexit deal.
He is married to Amelia Gentleman, a reporter for The Guardian, and they have two children.
Mr Johnson attended the European School in Uccle, before attending The Hall School in Hampstead, London, Ashdown House School in East Sussex, and then Eton College.
In 1991 he went to Oxford where he edited student newspaper Isis.
While at Oxford, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club together with Harry Mount, Nat Rothschild and George Osborne.
In 1997 he joined the Financial Times. He entered politics in 2010 when he became the MP for Orpington.
Why did he resign over Brexit?
Jo Johnson quit as Tory MP on September 5, 2019, after being "torn between family loyalty and the national interest."
He tweeted: "It’s been an honour to represent Orpington for 9 years & to serve as a minister under three PMs. In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister. #overandout"
On September 6 he told : "Boris is doing all the right stuff domestically - more teachers in our schools, more doctors and nurses in our hospitals, more police on the streets.
"He's got an amazing one-nation domestic agenda and I wish him all the best, I want this government to succeed in what it's doing."
Jo Johnson is pro-European and has previously called for a second referendum, a position that puts him at odds with the Prime Minister, who has vowed to leave the EU on October 31 with or without a Brexit deal.
Previously he dramatically resigned as rail minister in November 2018, claiming he couldn't back Mrs May's plans any longer.
He said: “It’s a failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis.”
The Suez Crisis in 1956 saw Britain humiliated over the invasion of Egypt.
He branded the two Brexit options on the table as "vasselage or chaos" and said he was campaigning for a second people's vote.
He wrote: "Given that the reality of Brexit has turned out to be so far from what was once promised, the democratic thing to do is to give the public the final say."
MORE ON JO JOHNSON
Jo – who voted Remain in 2016 - said: “What is now being proposed won’t be anything like what was promised two years ago.
"Britain stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since the Second World War. I believe it is entirely right to go back to the people and ask them to confirm their decision to leave the EU.”
However, Jo appeared to have done a U-turn since his brother swept into power.
Eight months after his dramatic resignation, he joined a Government that has ruled out a second referendum entirely.
He was appointed minister for universities and science, a role he held from 2015-2018.
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