Twitter sees the funny side as Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street

2022-09-06

‘It fits to the SAD EastEnders theme!’ Twitter sees the funny side as Boris the great entertainer leaves Downing Street as Prime Minister – after telling the country: ‘this is it folks!’

Twitter was flooded with memes that saw the funny side of Mr Johnson’s downfall, after he gave final speech
One set extended theme tune of EastEnders – usually reserved for sad departures – to footage of him leaving
Another user wrote, ‘it was a typically understated exit’, above a clip of someone getting fired out of a cannon

Britons took to social media to give their humorous takes on Boris Johnson’s departure from Downing Street today, as he handed over the reins of power to his successor Liz Truss.

Twitter was flooded with memes that saw the funny side of Mr Johnson’s downfall, after he gave a final speech outside Number 10 before walking to his car with his wife Carrie.

One tweet set the extended theme tune of TV soap EastEnders – usually reserved for sad departures of long-time characters – to BBC News’s footage of the couple’s car being driven away.

On the same theme, another tweet showed EastEnders pub landlady Peggy Mitchell on one of the occasions where she shouted ‘get out of my pub!’ – but replaced the words with: ‘Get out of my Downing Street!’

A third tweet – pretending to reveal Mr Johnson’s words outside Downing Street – depicted an episode of children’s cartoon Scooby Doo, showing the moment a villain said: ‘And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids’.

Another user wrote, ‘it was a typically understated exit’, above a clip of someone getting fired out of a cannon.

Meanwhile, one user alluded to Mr Johnson’s arrival at Balmoral to formally tender his resignation to the Queen. An image showed Her Majesty peering behind some curtains, and depicted her as saying: ‘He’s here, release the hounds.’

Mr Johnson left Downing Street for the final time this morning. He gave a typically bullish speech in which he talked up his record as PM and said ‘this is it, folks’.

Twitter was flooded with memes that saw the funny side of Mr Johnson’s downfall, after he gave a final speech outside Number 10 before walking to his car with his wife Carrie. One tweet set the extended theme tune of TV soap EastEnders – usually reserved for sad departures of long-time characters – to BBC News’s footage of the couple’s car being driven away

Another user wrote, ‘it was a typically understated exit’, above a clip of someone getting fired out of a cannon which was mocked up as news report

After walking out of the famous black door with wife Carrie, he pointed out he ‘got Brexit done’ and oversaw the ‘fastest vaccine rollout’ during his three-year stint as PM.

Liz Truss greets the Queen

Liz Truss greeted the Queen today as she takes over as PM after Boris Johnson officially resigned.

The incoming premier was pictured meeting the smiling monarch at Balmoral as power is transferred – a process known as ‘kissing hands’.

Ms Truss had taken a separate flight north to see the Queen and be asked to form a new government.

To add to the drama the plane carrying her and husband Hugh O’Leary was left circling above Aberdeen airport for around 20 minutes due to fog, before finally landing.

Ms Truss is expected to freeze energy bills, slash taxes and shake up the NHS in a ‘shock and awe’ bid to stamp her authority on government during her first weeks in office.

The quick decisions will be made in the attempt to unite her warring party and decisively dealing with the cost of living crisis.

He delivered a stark message that Britain must continue supporting Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s aggression, despite the economic pain caused by his ‘blackmail’ on gas prices.

And in a barb at MPs for dramatically ousting him, Mr Johnson said: ‘The baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race. They changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now.’

Mr Johnson also sparked laughter by comparing himself to a ‘booster rocket’ that was being jettisoned, suggesting he would keep out of the way on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. And he thanked staff for tolerating his wayward dog Dilyn.

‘I will be offering this government nothing but the most fervent support,’ he said. ‘We will get through it, we will come out stronger the other side… it is time for us all to get behind Liz Truss.’

Amid warm applause, Mr Johnson shook hands with some of the crowd – which included current and former Cabinet ministers, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg with one of his sons – before getting into a government car with Carrie and their two children.

Among those present was ultra-loyalist Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries. She has been asked to stay on by Liz Truss but decided to return to the backbenches. There is speculation she will handed a peerage.

After arriving at Balmoral, Mr Johnson had a final audience with the Queen, where he confirmed his resignation.

A statement from Buckingham Palace said the monarch was ‘graciously pleased’ to accept.

Ms Truss, who travelled to Balmoral separately from Mr Johnson, is thought to be drawing up plans for a freeze in bills which could cost around £100 billion.

She arrived at the Aberdeenshire estate by car shortly after 12.20pm for her meeting, where she was then seen greeting Her Majesty.

In his Downing Street speech, Mr Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘utterly deluded’ if he thinks he can succeed by ‘blackmailing and bullying’ the British public through restricting gas supplies, driving up world prices.

‘We have and will continue to have that economic strength to give people the cash they need to get through this energy crisis that has been caused by Putin’s vicious war,’ he said.

‘I know that Liz Truss and this compassionate Conservative government will do everything we can to get people through this crisis, and this country will endure it and we will win.’

Ms Truss won the contest to succeed Mr Johnson as Tory leader on Monday and will address the nation from Downing Street later on Tuesday as prime minister, although forecast storms mean she may have to do it from inside No 10.

A calm morning in Westminster meant Mr Johnson, watched by wife Carrie and supportive MPs including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, was able to deliver his farewell address from a lectern outside the black front door of No 10.

In a sign of lingering resentment at the manner in which he was forced out, Mr Johnson said ‘the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race – they changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now’.

He said his career is now like a booster rocket ‘that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific’.

Mr Johnson left Downing Street for the final time this morning. He gave a typically bullish speech in which he talked up his record as PM and said ‘this is it, folks’

Mr Johnson declared ‘like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough’ – a reference is to ancient Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus.

Before entering No 10, an ambitious Mr Johnson had frequently said he would serve as prime minister if he was ‘called from my plough’ like the Roman.

Mr Johnson said: ‘I will be offering this Government nothing but my most fervent support’, calling for Tories to unite behind the new leader at a ‘tough time for the economy’.

‘I say to my fellow Conservatives, it’s time for politics to be over, folks,’ he said.

‘It’s time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her team, and her programme, and deliver for the people of this country.

‘Because that is what the people of this country want. That’s what they need.

‘And that’s what they deserve.’

He added that if Dilyn, the Johnsons’ dog, and Larry, the No 10 cat, ‘can put behind them their occasional difficulties, then so can the Conservative Party’.

As well as her speech in Downing Street, Ms Truss will begin putting in place her team of ministers, with key allies and supporters already pencilled in for some of the most senior roles, including Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, who is widely expected to be given the crucial role of chancellor.

Ms Truss’s first major policy priority will be delivering a package of support for households struggling with energy bills which are set to soar even higher next month.

The Daily Telegraph reported that among the measures under consideration is a scheme to freeze bills until the next general election in 2024 while the Times suggested the measures could also apply to businesses whose energy prices are not covered by the household cap.

Details have yet to be announced, with Bloomberg suggesting the Truss administration could directly fix a new unit price that households will pay for electricity and gas, with regulator Ofgem sidelined from its role in setting the price cap.

Treasury Chief Secretary Simon Clarke, a close ally of Ms Truss, declined to give details of the package, which is expected to be announced as soon as Thursday.

But he said it will ‘come very shortly’ and ‘there is a clear commitment to rise to the level of events and to provide early certainty to families and businesses that there will be help available to meet the undoubted challenges that this autumn and winter are going to bring’.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It will be a major moment, I think, in terms of drawing a line under the sense of uncertainty which undoubtedly is present in the country at this time.’

Senior opposition politicians said the freeze must not be paid for by billpayers through a loan system.

Labour has called for a freeze funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas producers and the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, told Good Morning Britain: ‘To make working people pay for it when the gas and oil companies have made bumper profits would be completely unfair.

‘Therefore, the windfall tax on these companies, who have made extra profit than what they were expecting, is the right thing to do.’

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC Breakfast the plan being worked on ‘isn’t a freeze, it’s a loan’.

‘What they’re saying is that families and pensioners should be paying this back for years to come. That’s just not right,’ he said.

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