Boris Johnson’s unrepentant resignation speech was delivered with trademark bullishness, and shot through with resentment against those in his own party who have moved against him in recent days. We look at what he said – and what he meant.
What he said
I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now. The timetable will be announced next week and I’ve today appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.”
What he meant
Johnson’s allies were briefing on Thursday morning that he would remain in post until October, while a successor is chosen. But he did not mention a specific date in his speech, perhaps because there is now intense pressure on the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs to speed up the transition.
That could mean a faster leadership contest than envisaged in the discussions between Johnson and Brady or even a handover to a caretaker leader, though Johnson’s emergency mini-reshuffle to form a new cabinet in the minutes before the speech was clearly an attempt to avoid that.
What he said
I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting Conservative for the first time, thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979. And the reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue, to deliver that mandate in person, was not just because I wanted to do so but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you, to continue to do what we promised in 2019.
What he meant
Johnson’s cabinet colleagues were making clear to him that he had lost the support of his MPs on Tuesday, but his allies were pointing to the mandate he believes he has from the British public – 14m votes.
Of course, given the UK has a parliamentary rather than a presidential system, that mandate belongs to more than 350 individual Tory MPs. Johnson, however, believes it was his own special campaigning magic that won the Conservatives their thumping majority in 2019 and should have given him the right to carry on.
Whether he also felt it was his duty or obligation to continue in office is a moot point, but a sense of duty is not a quality those who know Johnson well tend to ascribe to him, unlike, say, Theresa May.
What he said
I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government, from getting Brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century. Reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in parliament. Getting us all through the pandemic. Delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown, and in the last few months, leading the west in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
What he meant
This was the “greatest hits” of Johnson’s premiership. It was aimed both at reframing the public narrative away from rule-breaking and lies and towards what he sees as his concrete achievements, and reminding the colleagues who turfed him out that they should be grateful.
An alternative perspective is that he did not “get Brexit done”, as the ongoing wrangle over the Northern Ireland protocol underlines. He botched the handling of the Covid pandemic, and he dragged his party through a humiliating string of self-inflicted scandals.
What he said
Let me say now to the people of Ukraine, I know that we in the UK will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes.”
What he meant
Johnson’s ardent fealty to Ukraine’s cause has been one of the defining features of the final months of his premiership, making him popular and well-known in the besieged country.
Cynics have suggested that Johnson occasionally used his close relationship with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to wriggle out of political tight spots, including dodging a run-in with “red wall” MPs last month in favour of a last-minute trip to Kyiv.
But as he rightly points out here, his replacement by a new leader appears unlikely to shift the UK’s support for Ukraine or its tough stance against Russia.
What he said
In the last few days I’ve tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much, when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls … But as we’ve seen, at Westminster the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves it moves, and, my friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable.”
What he meant
This was Johnson’s most pointed dig against those who moved against him, underlining the extraordinary fact that even in the past 24 hours, as government ministers resigned en masse, he continued to believe he could turn things around.
Those urging him to make a dignified exit included some of his closest erstwhile allies, but instead of acknowledging they may have had a point, he insults them as eccentric and acting as a herd.
This comes despite clear evidence the Conservatives were losing their electoral allure, having badly lost a pair of key byelections last month – one of which, Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, they had previously held with a majority of 24,000 – and polling showing that Johnson himself has become overwhelmingly unpopular.
A recent word cloud prepared by the pollsters JL Partners showed by far the most common description of the prime minister used by voters was “liar”. Whoever Johnson’s successor turns out to be, it seems likely that until he departs to his equivalent of David Cameron’s shepherd’s hut, he will squat on the backbenches nursing a bitter sense of betrayal that he was not allowed to finish his political project (whatever that was).
What he said
To you the British public - I know there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.”
What he meant
As his behaviour over 72 hours amply demonstrated, Johnson fought with every fibre of his being to cling on to power. But “them’s the breaks”- an Americanism – felt like the closest Johnson came to an acceptance that the game is up. It also had just a touch of the Etonian insouciance with which Cameron ended his resignation speech, turning his back on the podium and whistling his way back through the big black door.
What he didn’t say
Sorry.
The prime minister was fined for breaking lockdown rules, lost a string of crucial byelections, appointed an alleged groper as deputy chief whip and was then accused of lying about it, appalling his own ministers and many of the voters who backed him in 2019. But there was not even a hint of apology in Johnson’s speech for the chaotic melodrama he has dragged his party and the public through.
