MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

'Oui Monsieur Stanley', Boris Johnson's father becomes French citizen

Speaking in French in an interview with, the 81-year-old said he was “very happy,” and getting citizenship allowed him to “claim part of my identity.”

Stanley Johnson, father of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week secured French citizenship, but according to the French Justice Ministry, “this decision concerns only Mr. Stanley Johnson and does not extend to his descendants.”

Speaking in French in an interview with, the 81-year-old said he was “very happy,” and getting citizenship allowed him to “claim part of my identity.”

He filed his citizenship application at the French consulate in London last November.

“I'll always be European, that's for sure,” Stanley Johnson told RTL radio in December 2020, adding, “It's not a question of becoming French. If I understood correctly, I am French.”

Stanley Johnson was a member of the European parliament, worked for the European Commission, and voted to remain in the European Union during the 2016 Brexit referendum, while his son Boris led the leave movement.

He applied for French citizenship in December 2020 before the UK left the European Union.

However Stanley Johnson has since said he was wrong about Brexit, writing in the Daily Telegraph that Ukraine made him rethink his position because of the “the naivety of our European neighbors in their handling this crisis.”

According to EU statistics agency, Eurostat, around 3,100 British people acquired French nationality in 2020, making France the second most popular choice for Britons after Germany.