Boris Johnson’s mother dies aged 79

Boris Johnson is mourning the loss of his mother, Charlotte, after she died at the age of 79.

Professional painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl died “suddenly and peacefully” at a London hospital, the Telegraph reported.

The Prime Minister has previously described her as the “supreme authority” in his family.

Speaking at the 2019 Conservative Party conference, he told grassroots Tory activists that his mother had taught him to believe in “the equal importance, the equal dignity, the equal worth of every human being on the planet”.

Mrs Johnson-Wahl was married to the PM’s father, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! star Stanley, from 1963 to 1979, when they divorced.

During their 16-year marriage, she suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where she remained for nine months.

She was mother to four Johnson children: PM Boris Johnson, former Universities Minister Jo, journalist Rachel and environmental campaigner Leo.

Mrs Johnson-Wahl was an acclaimed portrait artist despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease aged just 40.

Her subjects included bonk buster author Jilly Cooper and Absolute Fabulous actress Joanna Lumley.

Mrs Johnson-Wahl told The Telegraph in 2015: “My older sister was terribly clever, as was my younger brother.

“My parents didn’t know what to do with me so they gave me some paints and I turned out to be good at it. Once I started I couldn’t stop.”

The mother-of-four was always considered to be a source of boundless strength and love for her children.

Charlotte Johnson Wahl said of her Tory sons:

“I find it extraordinary that I should have married a Tory and have four Tory children,” she said.

“I’ve never voted Tory in my life. My parents were very socialist – rich socialists with three cars and two houses, but they were socialists in the days when that happened.”

Her left-wing influences include her father, who was Sir James Fawcett, a British barrister and member of the European Commission for Human Rights.