In his final Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson looked back fondly on his time in office and thanked colleagues, before departing the chamber to raucous applause from his own MPs as he bombastically signed off with “hasta la vista, baby”, a famous quote from the Terminator film meaning “see you later”.
Reflecting on the 2019 general election win, delivering Brexit and the UK’s standing up for Ukraine in the wake of Russian aggression, Johnson told the chamber: “The last few years have been the biggest privilege of my life. I helped get the biggest Tory majority for 40 years and a huge re-alignment in UK politics.
“We’ve transformed our democracy and restored our national independence, helped get the country through a pandemic and helped save another country from barbarism.
“Mission largely accomplished, for now. I want to thank you, Mr Speaker, I want to thank all the wonderful staff of the House of Commons, I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues, I want to thank my Right Honourable friend opposite, I want to thank everybody here and hasta la vista, baby!"
Earlier in the session, Johnson encouraged the three remaining hopefuls in the Conservative leadership contest to “cut taxes and deregulation wherever you can” and “focus on the road ahead.”
He added: “But always remember to check the rear-view mirror and remember above all it's not Twitter that counts, it's the people who sent us here,” as he took aim at social media criticism.
The outgoing PM also made fun of the Treasury, saying that “if we always listened to the Treasury, we wouldn’t have built the M25 and the Channel Tunnel”.
Tory leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak, who resigned as chancellor after losing confidence in Johnson’s leadership and cited "fundamentally...different" approaches, is known to have clashed with the PM on funding for large projects.
He has also based his leadership campaign on “economic realism” around fiscal policy and is a standout exception among the runners and riders in that he is not promising immediate tax cuts if he were to win.
During the session, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the three hoping to succeed Johnson, which include Sunak, trade minister Penny Mordaunt and foreign secretary Liz Truss.
Sir Keir accused the trio of helping “get us into this mess and have no idea how to get us out of it”, having “trashed every part of their record in government.”
The Labour leader added: “What message does it send when the candidates to be prime minister can't find a single decent thing to say about him, about each other or their record in government?”
Johnson accused Sir Keir of simply opposing government policies for the sake of opposition, including the National Insurance increase, calling him a “pointless human bollard.”
Johnson also defended the National Insurance hike, telling MPs that it had been needed to channel more funding into the NHS and social care.
Despite Johnson's pride, SNP leader in Westminster Ian Blackford said that the people of Scotland would remember him as "disgraceful" in office.
Meanwhile, the final round of voting among MPs in the Tory leadership contest is underway, with a result to be announced at 16:00 BST.
The candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated and the final two will then be subject to a vote among the wider Tory party membership, with the result and identity of the next PM to be revealed on September 5.
