David vs Boris: From Eton boys to Brexit enemies

British prime minister David Cameron, left, and his fellow Conservative Boris Johnson are standing on opposing sides in the UK referendum on whether to remain or leave the EU, with Mr Cameron campaigning for the ‘remain’ camp while Mr Johnson in the ‘leave’ camp. Justin Tallis and Oli Scarff / AFP PhotoShow less

LONDON // Today they stand on opposite sides of the Brexit debate but prime minister David Cameron and his fellow Conservative Boris Johnson are in many ways cut from the same cloth.

Name: David William Donald Cameron

Age: 49

Education: Britain's most prestigious private school, Eton College, like his father and brother.

Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club, a rabble-rousing, socially exclusive student group with a taste for smashing up restaurants and then paying for the damage. Graduated with first class honours in Philosopy, Politics and Economics.

Family: Father was a stockbroker, his mother a magistrate. Older brother is a lawyer.

Married since 1996 to Samantha. Two daughters and a son. Their firstborn son died in 2009, aged six.

Career: Conservative Research Department, special adviser to the Chancellor (finance minister), special adviser to the Home Secretary (interior minister), director of corporate affairs at Carlton Communications, a media company.

Elected to parliament in 2001 at his third attempt.

Elected Conservative Party leader in 2005 and prime minister in 2010. Re-elected in 2015.

Image: Posh boy trying not to show it with "Call me Dave" bonhomie

What he thinks:

He has not always been so keen on the European Union, opposing the single currency and distancing the Conservatives from other centre-right parties in Europe he regarded as too federalist. But he knows about compromise, having led a coalition government in uncomfortable alliance with the Liberal-Democrats in his first term as prime minister. Foreign policy was dominated by constant disagreements between Euro-sceptic Conservatives and pro-EU Liberal-Democrats. Privately, he thought a referendum on the EU would “never happen,” but made it a key promise during the 2015 election campaign to placate the anti-EU faction in his own party. He then spent months renegotiating the terms of Britain’s membership of the EU, demanding restrictions on welfare benefits for EU migrants, less regulation and interference from Brussels and the right of Britain to opt out of “ever close union” with other EU states. But opponents say what he achieved fell well short of what he had promised. Sixteen of Mr Cameron’s ministers are also EU “remainers”, as are a significant number of business leaders and several prominent figures from the opposition Labour party. He has pledged to stay on as prime minister whatever the result of the referendum, arguing that he is best placed to lead negotiation in the event of a “leave” win. Others may well feel differently and his future is far from secure.

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Name: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

Age: 52

Education: Eton College, where he began calling himself "Boris" rather than "Alex" and his school reports were full of complaints about his bad timekeeping and laziness.

Balliol College, Oxford, where he was also a member of the Bullingdon Club. Was hugely disappointed to graduate in Classics with an upper second-class degree instead of a first.

Family: Father is a former member of the European parliament, his mother was a painter. Sister Rachel is a journalist, brother Jo is a minister in David Cameron's government

Married since 1994 to his second wife, Marina, a senior lawyer. He refers to her as “my learned wife”. They have two daughters and three sons. Also fathered a daughter by another woman in 2009 and is rumoured to have had several affairs.

Career: Fired from The Times for making up a quote. Moved immediately to the rival Daily Telegraph, (the editor was a friend from Oxford). Appointed Brussels correspondent. Appointed editor of the right-wing-leaning The Spectator magazine. Elected to parliament in 2001. Elected Mayor of London in 2008 and returned to parliament in 2015.

Image: He's just Boris — he's famous enough not to need a surname. Comical and buffoonish, masking fierce ambition.

What he thinks:

His opponents say Boris is an opportunist who sees Brexit as a shortcut to his own amibitons to be prime minister but Boris’s anti-EU credentials were established in his Brussels days with his highly critical, but influential, reports on the EU. “Everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing, explosive effect on the Conservatives and it really gave me this rather weird sense of power,” he admitted. Though the justice minister Michael Gove is the most senior Conservative in the “leave” camp, Boris is undoubtedly its star. He supported David Cameron for party leader and was rewarded with government posts but the friendship is unlikely to survive Brexit.