Theresa May has left Downing Street for the final time, saying she hopes for a Brexit “that works for the whole United Kingdom” – a parting remark that some will see as a coded message to her successor, Boris Johnson.
Standing alongside her husband, Philip, outside No 10 with staff and aides watching, May gave a brief farewell address before heading off in a motorcade to see the Queen.
“I am about to go to Buckingham Palace to tender my resignation to Her Majesty the Queen and to advise her to ask Boris Johnson to form a new administration,” May began. “I repeat my warm congratulations to Boris on winning the Conservative leadership election.”
Hailing her own record, May said: “Of course, much remains to be done – the immediate priority being to complete our exit from the European Union in a way that works for the whole United Kingdom.”
Earlier, during May’s last duty in the Commons as PM, she used prime minister’s questions to give a distinctly lukewarm endorsement of Johnson and to suggest Jeremy Corbyn should follow her lead and step down as Labour leader.
She said: “I am pleased to hand over to an incoming leader of the Conservative party and prime minister, who I worked with when he was in my cabinet, and who is committed as a Conservative who stood on a Conservative manifesto in 2017 to delivering on the vote of the British people in 2016 and to delivering a bright future for this country.”
Later in the session, responding to Corbyn’s final question, May started on what appeared to be a tribute to the Labour leader, saying that while they were “very different people and very different politicians” they both had a fundamental commitment to constituents.
But she added, to loud Conservative cheers: “Perhaps I could finish my exchanges with him by saying this: as a party leader who has accepted that her time was up, perhaps the time is now for him to do the same.”
Her voice breaking, she finished: “And each one of us, wherever we sit, whatever we stand for, can take pride in that. And that duty to serve my constituents, will remain my greatest motivation.”
