Boris Johnson pledged his “fervent support” for successor Liz Truss as she prepared to take over as British prime minister and deliver a plan to address the energy crisis.
In his farewell speech outside No 10, the outgoing British prime minister said his successor’s administration would do “everything we can” to help people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Truss, who will travel to Balmoral to accept the role of prime minister from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II later on Tuesday, is thought to be drawing up plans for a freeze in bills which could cost around £100 billion.
The prime minister said Vladimir Putin was “utterly deluded” if he thought he could succeed by “blackmailing and bullying” the British public through restricting gas supplies, driving up world prices.
Mr Johnson said: “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.
“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 today as prime minister, although storms forecast for Westminster 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 podium outside the black 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 was 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 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”.
