Boris Johnson: Vine caller slams Tories for ousting PM
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Mr Johnson was “sad” to be giving up the “best job in the world” – but “them’s the breaks”, he told the nation. Big Dog, as his allies affectionately call him, admitted the “herd” had skewered him in a “Darwinian” takedown. Just 42 hours after Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak quit the Cabinet and triggered a mass walkout of ministers, Mr Johnson was behind the lectern in Downing Street confirming his premiership was at an end.
Watched by wife Carrie, carrying their daughter Romy, and his Cabinet cheerleader, Nadine Dorries, plus dozens of aides and a band of still-loyal MPs, he admitted it was a “painful” moment.
Explaining his decision to hang on in the face of the chaos of the last two days, the PM said he had “fought so hard” because he believed it was his job, duty and obligation to continue work on delivering what he had promised at the last election.
Mr Johnson said he had told colleagues it would be “eccentric” to change the Government “when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls”.
The successes had been in the face of “pretty relentless sledging” from his opponents, he added.
But Mr Johnson admitted failing to persuade his team – and set out plans to hand over the reins, remaining in post until a successor is found.
In front of a bank of photographers, broadcasters and reporters from around the world gathered in Downing Street – with the usual Remainer protesters booing beyond the security gates – he said that “no one in politics is remotely indispensable”.
The Prime Minister said he was “immensely proud” of the achievements of his Government – from getting Brexit done, steering the country through the pandemic and leading Western countries’ response to Vladimir Putin’s “aggression” in Ukraine.
Previous PM Theresa May had been so overcome by emotion that she struggled to get to the end of her own resignation speech – while her predecessor David Cameron sauntered off once he had finished, whistling a jaunty tune.
By contrast, Mr Johnson stared straight down the lens of the television cameras and gave one of his traditional upbeat sign-offs, telling the country that “even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden”.
And with that, he clapped shut his folder and strode purposefully back into No 10 to get on with the job.
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