Voices: What Boris Johnson said in his resignation speech – and what he really meant
What Boris Johnson said: It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.
What he really meant: It has been clear for days but I have refused to accept it because that would have been an expression of weakness – giving in to mere reality. Did Winston Churchill accept that it was over? He did not.
What he said: I’ve today appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until the new leader is in place.
What he meant: It is amazing how people will humiliate themselves for a government job and ministerial car. These boobies will prop up my Potemkin cabinet as I fend off demands that Dominic Raab take over immediately as a caretaker prime minister.
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.”
What he meant: I am a winner. You will regret this, you puny fools.
What he said: 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: The reason I am still fighting to stay in No 10 for another few weeks is that I believe in the will to power. If someone wants it, they will have to come and take it from me.
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: We prime ministers get only one word in the history books. Mine is “Brexit”, but let me draft you a paragraph. My full memoir will be along just as soon as I’ve squared the publishers of my Shakespeare book.
What he said: We must keep levelling up, keep unleashing the potential in every part of the United Kingdom. And if we could do that, in this country, we will be the most prosperous in Europe.
What he meant: “If …” Not my fault if it doesn’t happen now.
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 and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in midterm after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging.
What he meant: I would have been winning, if it hadn’t been for some heckling from my own side.
What he said: I regret not to have been successful in those arguments, and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.
What he meant: I am bitter.
What he said: As we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves.
What he meant: Sheep, all of them. Or lemmings.
What he said: My friends, in politics, no one is remotely indispensable.
What he meant: I am indispensable and the sheeplike lemmings will soon realise it.
What he said: Our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.
What he meant: Have you seen the field of sheeplike lemmings listed at the bookies?
What he said: To that new leader, I say wherever he or she may be, I say I will give you as much support as I can.
What he meant: None at all.
What he said: To you, the British public, I know that 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: I am very bitter.
What he said: Above all I want to thank you, the British public for the immense privilege that you have given me.
What he meant: You have been betrayed. I will be naming the guilty parties in several instalments in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ over the next few years.
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What he said: Being prime minister is an education in itself.
What he meant: It was all about me.
What he said: I’ve travelled to every part of the United Kingdom and in addition to the beauty of our natural world, I found so many people possessed of such boundless British originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that I know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden.
What he meant: If it seems dark now, just wait until you see the next one.
What he said: Thank you all very much.
What he meant: I am very, very bitter.
