Howe’s that! Johnson’s parting shot...

DEVOID of the jokes and Latin phrases that usually pepper his public utterances, Boris Johnson’s resignation speech yesterday was solemn and almost sorrowful, with just a hint of menace.

In 12 compelling minutes, Theresa May’s former foreign secretary eviscerated her Brexit plans as a fudge that could condemn Britain to “miserable permanent limbo”. It came in a personal statement, a little-used privilege available to outgoing ministers. It was no coincidence the late Geoffrey Howe was among the few who had taken the opportunity to make such a statement.

His resignation blast nearly 28 years ago, likening Margaret Thatcher to a cricket captain sending out players with broken bats, is credited with calling time on the Iron Lady’s term.

To rub the point home, Mr Johnson stood virtually on the same spot from where Howe had bowled his googly, surrounded by Eurosceptic luminaries. This was more of a message from the mob than a swansong. It was an ultimatum to change course or else. Unlike Mrs Thatcher when Howe gave his speech, Mrs May was not on the front bench to hear. A prior engagement with a committee of MPs kept her away.

Mr Johnson stood ramrod straight and buttoned his jacket. He flourished a set of printed notes and launched into his tirade.

Ruffling his blond locks, he drew parallels with the era of Thatcher and Howe, claiming Mrs May’s plans for a “common rule book” with Brussels would have wrecked many of the Iron Lady’s radical free-market reforms.

“It is hard to see how the Conservative government of the 1980s could have done its vital supply side reforms with those freedoms taken away,” he said, in a warning to the Prime Minister that she was falling far short of her uncompromising Tory predecessor.

Mr Johnson was heard in silence, at least after the Speaker intervened to quell jeers from Labour MPs.

He sat down to cheers from his Brexiteer colleagues. Tory MP Nadine Dorries, sitting at his side, patted his arm. She has been a long-standing fan, famously running out in tears when he announced his decision to withdraw from the Tory leadership race two year ago.

Perhaps his supporters are daring to dream that, after his storming speech yesterday, his hour may be coming at last.