Boris Johnson won the contest to lead Britain’s governing Conservative Party on Tuesday and will become the country’s next prime minister, tasked with fulfilling his promise to lead the U.K. out of the European Union.
Johnson resoundingly defeated rival Jeremy Hunt, winning two thirds of the votes in a ballot of about 160,000 Conservative members. He will be installed as prime minister in a formal handover from Theresa May on Wednesday.
In a brief speech Tuesday meant to rally the party faithful, Johnson radiated optimism, and pledged to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat the Labour opposition.
“I think we know that we can do it and that the people of this country are trusting in us to do it and we know that we will do it,” he said.
The former Foreign Minister and Mayor of London has close ties to Britain’s Jewish community and is seen as a very strong supporter of Eretz Yisrael
In the 1980s, Boris Johnson volunteered in Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi in the Upper Galilee. He has called himself a “Zionist” and said that Israel is a wonderful country which he loves.