Time for Truss, says ‘booster rocket’ Boris Johnson in farewell speech

PTI

London, September 6

Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday called on the Conservative Party to get behind his successor, Liz Truss, just before meeting Queen Elizabeth II to formally resign as the head of the government.

The 58-year-old, who had announced his resignation in early July in the wake of pressure from within his Cabinet after a series of controversies including the partygate scandal of covid lockdown law-breaking parties within government quarters, used his farewell speech to describe himself as a "booster rocket" and lamented the way he was forcibly pushed out of 10 Downing Street by Tory colleagues changing “rules halfway”.

"This is it folks,” said Johnson, on the steps of Downing Street before leaving for Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

“In only a couple of hours, I will be in Balmoral to see Her Majesty the Queen and the torch will finally be passed to a new Conservative leader, the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race, they changed the rules halfway through but never mind that now," he said.

Johnson's audience with the 96-year-old monarch will be followed soon after by foreign secretary Liz Truss, who beat former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership election, meeting the Queen to be formally asked to form a new government.

"This is a tough time for families up and down the country. We can and we will get through it and we will come out stronger on the other side but I say to my fellow Conservatives, it is time for politics to be over folks, it is time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her team and her programme and deliver for the people of this country because that is what the people of this country want, that is what they need and that is what they deserve," said Johnson.

With an oblique reference to his future plans, he added: “On the subject of bouncing around and future careers, let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently reentering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.

“And like [Roman military leader] Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough and I will be offering this government nothing but the most fervent support.”

He then left Downing Street accompanied by wife Carrie Johnson in a cavalcade to be flown out to Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

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