'I don't know what he will do': Europe braces for Brexit with Boris Johnson

Britain's possible future prime minister alarmed and charmed his European counterparts during his tenure as foreign secretary

Boris Johnson’s last act as Britain’s foreign secretary was to gather a host of European dignitaries in London and fail to turn up.

As the group of ministers waited in a conference center in London’s docklands last summer, text messages flooded in: Mr. Johnson had just quit the British government in protest over its handling of Brexit. “Well, it’s all rather happening, isn’t it?” said Alan Duncan, a British foreign office minister who was playing host amid the diplomatic mess, according to people present. European officials laughed, and some expressed relief that Mr. Johnson was gone.

Mr. Johnson may now