Theresa May uses final PMQs to demand Jeremy Corbyn quits too and gets standing ovation
THERESA May brought the House down yesterday by demanding Jeremy Corbyn follow her out of Westminster in a blistering farewell.
Her voice cracking with emotion, the PM stared down the arch-leftie and stormed: “As a party leader who has accepted when her time was up, perhaps the time is now for him to do the same.”
It came as Mrs May got a standing ovation from Tory MPs, the DUP and Lib Dems after a charged last appearance in the Commons.
To cries of support from Conservative backbenchers at Prime Minister’s Questions, she defended her three years in No10 and tore into the Labour leader’s broken promises.
And — under the gaze of husband Philip in the gallery above — she backed her successor Boris Johnson at every turn.
Little over an hour later, she once more praised the man who replaces her in a short public address on the steps of No10.
As party leader who has accepted when her time was up, perhaps the time is now for him to do the same?
Theresa May
She slapped down a heckler who shouted “Stop Brexit!” from outside of the gates to Downing Street. She broke off from her speech to say: “My answer to that is ‘I think not’.”
And before heading to see the Queen to tender her resignation, Mrs May told the watching world: “I repeat my warm congratulations to Boris on winning the Conservative leadership election.
“I wish him and the Government he will lead every good fortune in the months and years ahead.
“Their success will be our country’s successes, and I hope that they will be many.”
Flanked by Philip, she said: “Their achievements will build on the work of nearly a decade of Conservative or Conservative-led government.
“During that time our economy has been restored, our public services reformed and our values defended on the world stage.”
'A NEW BEGINNING'
In a glimpse of her worries about a No Deal Brexit, the outgoing PM pointedly said Boris’s immediate priority was to “complete our exit” from the EU “in a way that works for the whole of the United Kingdom”.
But she said that would allow a Boris-led administration to bring about a “new beginning for our country — a national renewal that can move us beyond the current impasse into the bright future the British people deserve”.
I wish Boris and the Government he will lead every good fortune in the months and years ahead. Their success will be our country’s successes, and I hope that they will be many.
Theresa May
She left Mr Johnson a hand-written note and two bottles of white wine in No10 before heading off up the Mall.
Mrs May spent her final morning thanking No10 staff and her aides.
She then fought back tears in a 64-minute finale at PMQs by insisting her “greatest motivation” now would be to continue to serve her Maidenhead constituency.
Mr Corbyn paid tribute to the PM’s “sense of public duty”.
But he then ripped into the Tory’s failure to deliver on cutting in-work poverty, NHS waiting lists and homelessness. The PM hit back that every child was in a better school and hailed the Tory record on the economy.
And she accused him of ducking a string of manifesto commitments from abolishing student debt to being committed to the Trident nuclear deterrent.
BLISTERING PARTING SHOT
In her final exchange with Mr Corbyn she said: “It is the strength of our democracy that the PM and the Leader of the Opposition have these exchanges across the despatch boxes every week.
“One thing we both have in common is a commitment to our constituencies, I saw that after the terrorist attack in Finsbury Park Mosque in his constituency.”
She then added: “Perhaps I could just finish my exchange with him by saying this: As party leader who has accepted when her time was up, perhaps the time is now for him to do the same?”
Tories roared as Labour sat in silence. Minutes later, ex-Labour MP Ian Austin, now an independent, stood to back her blistering comments about the need for Mr Corbyn to consider his future “completely”.
And he said: “And can I tell her this as well — it’s absolutely clear to me that the vast majority of Labour MPs agree with her too.”
The Commons was unusually filled to the rafters for Mrs May’s final appearance. The SNP’s Ian Blackford noted Mr Johnson’s absence — and asked if the outgoing PM had confidence in him.
New Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson prompted fits of laughter in Mrs May’s husband by trolling Boris.
She said: “Can I ask the Prime Minister what advice she has for women across the country on how to deal with those men who think they could do a better job but are not prepared to do the actual work?”
The PM brushed off all attempts to encourage her to criticise Boris. She insisted: “I am pleased to hand over to an incoming leader of the Conservative Party who I worked with when he was in my Cabinet.”
She said he was someone “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”.
Arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg enraged Remainers by paying tribute to a PM he tried to boot out in a vote of no confidence.
He praised her for “dealing with people who must have been annoying to her with enormous courtesy”.
'SISTERLY ADVICE'
In a reference to Mrs May’s first visit to Donald Trump, Labour’s “Mother of the House” Harriet Harman quipped: “Can I offer some sisterly advice?
“Sometimes you just have to be a bit more careful when a man wants to hold your hand?”
Mrs May ended by remarking she had answered 4,500 questions over 140 hours.
She said: “We are living through extraordinary political times. This House of Commons is rightly at the centre of those events.
“That’s because of the vital link between every single member of this House and the communities, the Commons that we represent.
“That’s the bedrock of our parliamentary democracy and our liberty.”
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