LONDON —
To one last round of cheers from his recently mutinous MPs,
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bowed out of his final set piece event in parliament Wednesday,
signing off by saying: “Hasta la vista, baby!”
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In a vintage blast
of verbiage against his critics, Johnson defended his three tumultuous years in
office — from Brexit and
COVID vaccines to Ukraine — and praised the candidates
battling to succeed him, as he fended off opposition attacks at his last
session of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The House of
Commons breaks for its summer recess on Thursday, and the new leader is set to
be announced when it reconvenes on September 5.
Labor leader Keir
Starmer quoted the bitter attacks hurled against each other and their own
government’s record by the three remaining Conservative candidates: Rishi
Sunak, Liz Truss, and Penny Mordaunt.
Johnson’s Downing
Street operation is reportedly running an “anyone but Rishi” campaign, accusing
the former finance minister of orchestrating a cabinet revolt that brought him
down this month after many scandals including “Partygate”.
“I’m not following
this thing particularly closely,” the prime minister said of the Tory race, to
laughter.
But he praised
Sunak’s economic management during the pandemic, and said that any one of the
three, “like some household detergent, would wipe the floor” with Labor.
Johnson reprised
his long-running characterization of Starmer as “Captain Hindsight” over COVID,
and called him “a great pointless human bollard”.
The Conservative
race has seen successive candidates eliminated in ballots among the party’s
MPs.
The final two were
set to be chosen later Wednesday, before taking their case to grassroots Tories
during August.
But Johnson gave
the contenders some words of advice, urging them to “stay close to the
Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy
everywhere”.
“Cut taxes and
deregulate where you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest.
... Focus on the road ahead but always remember to check the rearview mirror.”
“And remember
above all it’s not Twitter that counts, it’s the people that sent us here.”
Johnson, 58, said
his time in office had been “the greatest privilege” of his life.
“I helped to get
the biggest Tory majority for 40 years and a huge realignment in UK politics,”
he added.
“We’ve transformed
our democracy and restored our national independence. ... I’ve helped to get
this country through a pandemic and helped save another country from barbarism
— and frankly that’s enough to be going on with.”
“Mission largely
accomplished.”
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