The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s final speech as Prime Minister

'Like Cincinnatus I am returning to my plough'

(Credit: Getty images)

Well, this is it folks. Thanks to all of you for coming out so early this morning. 

In only a couple of hours from now 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 half-way through, but never mind that now – and through that lacquered black door a new Prime Minister will shortly go to meet a fantastic group of public servants: the people who got Brexit done, the people who delivered the fastest vaccine roll out in Europe, and never forget – 70 per cent of the entire population got a dose within six months, faster than any comparable country that is government for you – that’s this Conservative government. The people who organised those prompt early supplies of weapons to the heroic Ukrainian armed forces, an action that may very well have helped change the course of the biggest European war for 80 years.

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