The bombastic, Latin-quoting, Oxford classicist with the mop of intentionally mussed yellow hair, who made his name as an over-the-top journalist in Brussels and then as London mayor and galvanized the successful Brexit campaign in 2016, will walk through the black enameled door of 10 Downing Street on Wednesday — fulfilling what his biographers describe as his relentless “blond ambition” to follow his hero, Winston Churchill, into the top spot…

As a sign how the Conservative Party has torn itself apart over Brexit, the Tory backbencher Charles Walker asked the audience in the hall where Johnson’s victory was announced, “can we be kinder to the next prime minister than we have been to the current prime minister?”

When Johnson clocks in for his first day of work in the top job, he will face an overflowing in-tray of daunting problems that need urgent attention, including — but not limited to — a showdown in the Persian Gulf with a belligerent Iran, vexing Brexit, assembling a top leadership team, the survival of his Conservative Party, ministerial resignations, rebels in Parliament and a raft of domestic issues ranging from housing to health care.