London: 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 Euro-sceptic 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, $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 Euro-sceptic 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”.
