Prime minister hopes for Brexit ‘that works for whole UK’ after refusing to praise successor

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

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.”

Later during the speech, a protester outside the gates of Downing Street delivered a loud cry of “Stop Brexit!”, prompting May to pause and Philip to say quietly: “That wasn’t me.”

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.

The first question, from the Labour backbencher Ruth Cadbury, asked May about handing over to “a man who among many things is happy to demonise Muslims, is prepared to chuck our loyal public servants and diplomats under a bus, and promises to sell our country out to Donald Trump and his friends.”

May’s reply rejected the criticisms but pointedly did not praise Johnson or his work under her as foreign secretary.

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.

May uses last PMQs to tell Corbyn to quit as Johnson prepares to become prime minister – live news Read more

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.”

After more than an hour of questions by Corbyn and backbenchers – believed to be the longest PMQs on record – May said the work of MPs was “the bedrock of our parliamentary democracy and our liberty”.

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.”

May then left the chamber to a standing ovation from Conservative MPs and a few others such as the DUP.

Quick guide 10 Boris Johnson leadership campaign pledges - and their costs Show Hide 1: Raising the 40% income tax threshold Cost: £9bn. Only 12% of people in the UK earn more than £50,000 a year, so this pledge to move the 40% threshold up to £80,000 would help those on the highest incomes. 2. Increasing the starting point for national insurance contributions to £12,500 Cost: £11bn. At present people pay NICs when they earn £166 a week and income tax when they earn £12,500 a year. Johnson wants to gradually align the two systems by raising the NICs ceiling to an annual £12,500. 3. Raise education spending Cost: £4.6bn. Theresa May’s successor says he will raise education spending to £5,000 for every secondary school pupil and £4,000 for each primary school pupil. 4. More police Cost: £1.1bn. Johnson has promised an extra 20,000 officers. 5. Free TV licences for the over-75s Cost: £250m. This would reverse the BBC - and George Osborne's -decisions over this perk for pensioners. 6. Raising the level at which stamp duty is levied Cost: £3.8bn. There have been reports that the incoming prime minister would like all house sales under £500,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be exempt from stamp duty. 7. Nationwide full fibre broadband coverage by 2025 Cost: unknown. Industry experts say this is not feasible in the time available, given coverage is currently less than 10%. 8. The creation of six free ports in the UK Cost: unknown. Johnson said while on the hustings with Jeremy Hunt that he intended to create “about six” free ports – zones designated by the government to pay little or no tax in an attempt to boost economic activity. 9. Review HS2 and build HS3 Cost: unknown. One of Johnson’s big early decisions will be whether to scrap HS2 and spend the money on alternative rail infrastructure such as linking the big cities of the north through HS3. Any savings generated by scrapping HS2 will almost certainly be recycled into other transport projects. 10. Raising the national living wage Cost: unknown. The government employs one in six of the people working in the UK, so it would be affected by Johnson’s promise to raise the national living wage. Larry Elliott Economics editor

Corbyn began his questions by paying tribute to what he called May’s “sense of public duty”, but the pair had a bad-tempered exchange over her record in office.

The Labour leader condemned May for overseeing increases in poverty, crime, NHS waiting lists, school class sizes, food-bank use and homelessness. May countered by saying her government had improved schools and boosted employment.

In an exchange on Brexit, May accused Corbyn of “playing party politics” by refusing to vote for her deal. He responded by condemning the prospect of Johnson taking over the departure process.

Corbyn said: “We’ve had three years of bungled negotiations and we now have the spectacle of a prime minister coming into office with no electoral mandate, looking for a Brexit deal that has been ruled out by the European Union or, in the case of no deal, ruled out by the majority of this house and by anyone that understands the dangers to the British economy of no deal.”