I’ve been driven out of the best job in the world... but them’s the breaks, he said
BORIS Johnson spoke of his pain yesterday at being driven out of ‘the best job in the world’ by the ‘herd instinct’ of panicking Conservative MPs.
In a heartfelt resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister said he had battled to stay in post against a growing mutiny, because he felt a ‘duty’ to deliver on his pledges to the 14million voters who gave him his election landslide.
The Prime Minister pledged to help his successor and give them ‘as much support as I can’.
And he predicted bright times ahead despite the decision by Tory MPs to force him from office in the midst of a cost of living crunch.
Die-hard staff and allies, including his wife Carrie, looked on as the Prime Minister gave the emotionally-charged speech. Left-wing protesters at the Downing Street gates did their best to drown out the applause.
Allies said Mr Johnson finally decided the game was up after being warned by a string of previously loyal Cabinet ministers that he had lost the support of Tory MPs. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned him that he would ‘lose and lose badly’ if he tried to fight a second vote of confidence.
Privately, allies were furious at the betrayal by their MPs, many of whom owe their political careers to Mr Johnson. One said: ‘The Tory party deserves what’s coming, the people of Britain don’t. They are disgusting. They have blood on their hands.’
In public, the Prime Minister only hinted at his frustration at being forced from office halfway through the parliamentary term.
He pointed out his extraordinary record in delivering Brexit, taking the country through the pandemic and leading the global resistance to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a hint at the obsessive media coverage of Partygate, he said he had been the subject of ‘relentless sledging’.
He said he had tried to convince colleagues it would be ‘eccentric to change governments 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, even in mid-term after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally’. Mr
Johnson noted that he had achieved an ‘incredible mandate’, securing the biggest share of the vote by any Tory leader since Margaret Thatcher in 1979.
In a direct message to the millions of voters who backed him, he said: ‘The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.’
But he said his arguments had been trampled by the ‘herd instinct’ of panicking Tory MPs.
‘Of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself,’ he added.
‘But as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves.’
Acknowledging his divisive status, he said: ‘I know there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed.
‘And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.’
Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, a strong supporter of Mr Johnson, was among those applauding his speech in Downing Street.
As she was leaving, she was filmed gesturing at the jeering crowd outside the gates while shouting: ‘Those who laugh last, laugh the loudest, wait and see.’
‘Eccentric to change government now’