Boris Johnson's kibbutz 'father' recalls time spent with future British PM who always 'knew what he wanted'

Boris Johnson was clearly someone who knew “what he wanted, and knew how to get what he wanted,” Alec Collins, who “adopted” the British prime minister when he spent a short time on Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi in northern Israel, tells Channel 12.

The TV station interviewed Collins amid the global virus crisis, a day after Johnson left hospital praising medical staff who he said saved his life after he contracted COVID-19.

Johnson spent 10 days on the kibbutz working in the laundry, Collins recalls, while his sister Rachel stayed on for three months in 1984. “He hung up the washing; that was his job most of the time,” recalls Collins.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a message to the public on his release from the hospital after treatment for COVID-19, April 12, 2020 (Screenshot)

He said that Johnson had not left because he had any problem with the work in the laundry, but because he wanted to travel and see the country. “On the contrary,” said Collins, who made aliyah from Leeds, England, in 1957, “he was not the kind of person to complain… He was a highly motivated, serious man…. He wanted to see what there is in the land of Israel… not just one place.”

Collins added that while his acquaintance with Johnson was short-lived, he has kept in touch from time to time with Rachel Johnson, including after Johnson became prime minister.