'Always a European': UK PM Boris Johnson's father applies for French passport on Brexit eve

Stanley Johnson's plan to apply for a French passport was revealed in his daughter Rachel's book. Photo / Getty Images

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's father has declared he will "always be a European" on the eve of Brexit, as he confirmed he had applied for a French passport.

Stanley Johnson said his familial ties to the Gallic nation led him to seek citizenship on the day the transition period came to an end.

He said: "If I understand it correctly, I am French. My mother was born in France, her mother was totally French as was her grandfather. So for me it is about reclaiming what I already have. And that makes me very happy."

The environmental campaigner told French radio station RTL on Thursday: "You can't tell the English 'you're not European'. Europe is more than the single market, it's more than the European Union.

PM Boris Johnson and his siblings spent part of their childhood in Brussels as their father worked for the European Commission. Photo / AP

"That said, to have a link like that with the EU is important," he concluded, in an apparent reference to his passport application.

His mother, known in the family as Granny Butter, claimed to come from an ancient line of French nobility.

Her own mother's maiden name was de Pfeffel, which was adopted as one of Boris Johnson's middle names.

The Prime Minister and his siblings spent part of their childhood in Brussels as their father worked for the European Commission.

Johnson senior was also the Tory MEP for Wight and Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984.

A source close to the family suggested he had applied so that his grandchildren could live and work in the EU after Brexit.

When Brexit ruins the UK, Stanley Johnson will keep his rights of Free Movement and Boris Johnson can retire back to America where he was born.

This country is a joke right now.https://t.co/DsPTNbHLaw

— Femi😷 (@Femi_Sorry) December 31, 2020

Stanley Johnson applying for residence in France? He supported Brexit, I didn’t. As a resident in the UK or France, he could glide in and out of border control, staying as long as, whilst I have limited stay times in Germany and, no doubt, face a different travel experience. pic.twitter.com/shHXXXuHgn

— Lost in the Shire (@hobbitoncentral) December 31, 2020

So Boris indeed can have his cake and eat it.

As for the rest of us, let us eat cake. ("Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"..)

— Susan Parker (@SParkerGGG) December 31, 2020

His plan to apply for a French passport was revealed in his daughter Rachel Johnson's book, Rake's Progress: My Political Midlife Crisis, when it was published in March.

Rachel Johnson wrote that her father was "en route to becoming a French citizen, as his mother had been born in Versailles and his grandmother had been in Paris".

"This is good news – I might be able to become French too," she added.

Johnson senior has been mulling over the application for some time. Asked about the suggestion in November 2019, he said it was a "nice thought".