Bacon butties with Boris, Carrie’s farewell in fuchsia and the magical moment Liz met Liz... what a day of delicious drama!
THE day of political drama was matched every step of the way by the ever- changing British weather. Boris Johnson’s farewell speech in Downing Street had to be brought forward an hour to 7.30am because of a storm warning.
In his final minutes inside No 10, there were ‘inedible’ bacon sandwiches and cups of ‘grey-looking’ tea – but the mood was upbeat.
As Mr Johnson’s inner circle gathered for the last time, the atmosphere was described as jolly, with the smiling PM agreeing to souvenir selfies with his loyalists.
Outgoing culture secretary Nadine Dorries posted a photo of herself with the Prime Minister on Twitter stood just outside his office, captioned: ‘Around 7.15am. Quick cuppa.’
A No 10 source said: ‘It was very light-hearted, with everyone joking around, and Boris was being his usual jovial self despite the circumstances. The focus was on the good times.’
Among the throng, Jacob ReesMogg had brought his lookalike teenage son Peter to enjoy the drama, and they asked for an autograph and a selfie.
Rachel Johnson, the PM’s sister, was there too and later she told radio station LBC: ‘In the last 15 minutes of his time in No 10, you would think he would be off in a side room, reading over his notes, just kind of having a moment, just preparing himself.
‘What my brother does, he wants everybody to feel good. Even if he’s feeling terrible inside, he feels that he has to spread the love and cheer everybody up, instead of focusing on himself in those last 15, 20 minutes.
‘You had this morning sun, this new dawn feeling, as the sun filtered
‘He wants everyone to feel good’
through the hazy morning mist. Jacob and Peter asked for a photograph, Nadine asked for a photograph, which is all great but he obliged right up to the end.
‘There were bacon sandwiches – but someone said the food’s never worth eating in No 10 – some rather grey-looking RAF-type tea, and then we were all taken out and put in our places.’
At 7.30am on the dot, Downing Street staff lined the historic hallway and applauded Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie as they walked hand-inhand towards the famous black door for the final time.
One insider said: ‘There were dozens of staff from every level and they all turned out to honour Boris. Everyone was clapping him and Carrie out.
‘When the cameras had gone, and they had stepped outside, some of the real loyalists were in tears.
‘That was the moment they realised it was over.’
Outgoing communications chief Guto Harri reflected in an online post that their time together in Downing Street had been ‘far too brief’ and accused the Tory party of having a ‘brutal appetite for self-harm’.
Outside in the early morning sunshine Downing Street was packed, with a group of staff on one side, political allies on the other and at least 200 journalists in the middle.
Mrs Johnson, saying farewell in fuchsia with a striking backless dress, released her husband’s hand and joined the gathering of Mr Johnson’s closest political friends and family.
He took a few steps to the lectern and – after 1,139 days in office – delivered his goodbye speech in typically bullish style, starting: ‘This is it, folks.’
Occasionally thumping the podium, he hailed his legacy from Brexit to the vaccine programme, before sparking laughter as he likened himself to a ‘booster rocket’ that had fulfilled its function and would soon ‘ gently re- enter the atmosphere’ and splash down in some remote corner of the Pacific.
His speech took an even more surreal turn when, just as he was heralding newfound peace between the Downing Street cat Larry and the Johnsons’ dog Dilyn, ‘ Stop Brexit’ activists outside tried to drown him out with loud Benny Hill music.
Afterwards, Mr Johnson sought his wife’s hand again and they made their way through the crowd.
Mrs Johnson looked visibly sad to be leaving, lingering to embrace some of the dozens clapping as they walked towards their armoured Range Rover. Mr Johnson appeared to be almost dragging her away, leading to a nearmiss slapstick moment as she was forced to swerve a lamppost at the last moment.
Once safe in their Range Rover, the couple swept out of Downing Street for RAF Northholt in west London and the flight to Scotland to see the Queen.
There was no sign of their two children Wilf and Romy, with Mr Johnson’s sister suggesting they were ‘somewhere else’ for the day.
Their Dassault Falcon 900LX jet left RAF Northolt in west London at 8.30am and landed in Scotland at 9.30am – in a howling gale.
On the grey, windswept apron of Aberdeen airport, there was no missing the couple thanks to Mrs Johnson’s daring silk outfit.
She cut an elegant figure in the £485 bright floral Dreamy maxidress, from fashion brand Harmur, slashed across the back to show her shoulders, teamed with nude suede high heels.
After the drive to Balmoral, Mr and Mrs Johnson were welcomed to the castle grounds at 11.15am by the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, and her equerry, Lieutenant Colonel Tom White.
Not far behind, in the ever-darkening skies somewhere over the English- Scottish border, Liz Truss was following the Johnsons in her own identical RAF executive jet.
According to officials, the outgoing and incoming Prime Minsters flew separately for security reasons.
As Mr Johnson prepared to present his resignation to Her Majesty, the carefully choreographed day suffered a lapse as Miss Truss’s flight crew appeared to be having a bit of difficulty with the weather.
In heavy fog, her Falcon circled Aberdeen airport for about 20 minutes as the pilots waited for the
best moment to land. In the end, they put down safely at 11.02am, allowing Miss Truss, wearing a navy blue dress, and her husband Hugh O’Leary to transfer to their own convoy for the journey into the Highlands.
The storm delayed her historic audience with the Queen by 10 minutes, but the monarch, wearing her ‘ traditional Balmoral attire’, including a skirt in Balmoral tartan and an autumnal cardigan, had spent much of the time chatting with her first guests.
Although Mr Johnson had gone alone into the cosy Balmoral Drawing Room to formally tender his resignation, his wife joined them soon after for a more informal chat by the log fire. Protocol dictates their conversation remains private, but sources suggested the monarch would have asked the Johnsons about their plans for the future.
After 40 minutes, they departed via a private route, and were not seen again yesterday.
At 12.20pm, the newly elected Conservative leader and her husband were greeted by the same dignitaries as her predecessor.
Miss Truss was briefed by the Lord Chamberlain before being invited into the green- carpeted drawing room.
The historic audience was the first time that the 96-year- old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, has carried out her key constitutional duty at her Highlands retreat rather than at Buckingham Palace.
It was also the first time Her Majesty has been pictured since she was seen arriving at the estate on July 21 for her summer holiday.
Though smiling radiantly, she also appeared as frail as ever, and used her now-familiar walking stick as she lent forward to shake the hand of the 15th Prime Minister – and the third woman to hold the title – of her 70-year reign.
Miss Truss performed the traditional curtsy, and after she was formally invited to form a government the two women had a private chat before Mr O’Leary, wearing a navy suit, was ushered in to join them.
At 1.06pm, the new PM departed in a now-raging storm for the return to London.
Her team swiftly updated her Twitter profile to ‘Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’, while around the same time, Mr Johnson’s was changed to add the word ‘former’.
Miss Truss spent much of the journey to Aberdeen airport on the phone as she finessed the plans for her new Cabinet.
It was wheels-up at 2.39pm and on the flight back to London she was given a top- secret military briefing including details of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
It is one of any new Prime Minister’s first tasks to write a personal letter to the captain of a nuclear submarine with clear instructions on how to act in the event of war.
Back in the capital, the podium was being set up in Downing Street – but Miss Truss appeared to have brought the foul Scottish weather back with her.
As her seven-vehicle police convoy swept along the A40 from RAF Northholt, tracked on live TV via helicopter, her political team were said to be panicking about the ‘optics’ of her delivering her historic speech in a thunderstorm, or worse, having to relocate inside and be seen to be running away from the British weather.
As the rain grew heavier, what looked like a black bin liner was placed over the podium’s microphone, before eventually two dripping wet sound engineers carted the lectern off to shelter.
Luckily for Miss Truss, the weather gods were smiling on her as the convoy finally reached Westminster.
The podium was swiftly restored in time for her landmark speech, in which she aptly spelt out the theme: ‘As strong as the storm will be, Britain is stronger.’
After entering the black door as Prime Minister, she and Mr O’Leary were given a rapturous welcome by the No 10 staff.
But Miss Truss wasted no time in shaping her own destiny, driving straight to her new office in the House of Commons behind the Speaker’s chair to embark on a massacre of the Rishi Sunak allies.
Former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab was the first to be dispensed with.
Then she went back to No 10 to begin the task of appointing her new team, along with taking a congratulatory phone call from US President Joe Biden.
Her work had just begun.