Boris Johnson has resigned as prime minister after a turbulent week of strikes by his top team.
In his resignation speech outside number 10 Downing Street, he said it was “painful” not to see through the projects he had started, adding: “But, as we have seen in Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves.”
He also praised the “boundless British originality” he saw during his tenure in the UK, and how the public wants to tackle old problems in new ways.
Here is Mr Johnson’s full speech:
“Good afternoon everyone.
“It is now clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party for a new leader of that party and thus a new prime minister.
“I agree with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of our backbench of MPs, that the process of electing that new leader must now begin. and the timetable will be announced next week.
“I have appointed a cabinet today to serve as I will until a new leader is appointed.
“I want to thank the millions of people who voted for us in 2019 – many of them voting Conservative for the first time – for that incredible mandate, the largest Conservative majority since 1987, the largest share of votes since 1979.
“The reason I’ve fought so hard over the past few days to continue to personally carry out that mandate was not just because I wanted to, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my duty to you to keep going. to do what we promised in 2019.