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Harry Fletcher
Jul 20, 2022
The full exchange: Starmer takes on Johnson in his final PMQs as ...
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While the Tories might accuse Labour of being behind the times, Boris Johnson just signed off his last ever PMQs with a film quote from 1991.
The departing PM brought an incongruous end to one of his last appearances in the Commons as leader by pretending to be the Terminator.
“Mission, largely, accomplished,” Johnson started off by saying, before giving some words of advice for his successor.
“I want to use the last few seconds to give some words of advice to my successor, whoever he or she may be,” the departing leader said.
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“Number one: Stay close to the Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere. Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is.
\u201c"Hasta la vista, baby"\n\nPM Boris Johnson receives standing ovation from Conservative MPs after offering "final words of advice" to successor, "whoever he or she may be"\n\n#PMQs https://t.co/fYJXc3xpvS\u201d— BBC Politics (@BBC Politics) 1658318198
“I love the Treasury but remember that if we’d always listened to the Treasury we wouldn’t have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel.”
Finally, he signed off by saying: "Hasta la vista, baby."
\u201cBoris Johnson leaves the Commons saying \u201chasta la vista, baby.\u201d \n\nThen receives applause only from his own side. \n\nViewers may recall the very side which removed the Prime Minister only a week or so ago, many of whom writing letters in the strongest possible terms against him.\u201d— Lewis Goodall (@Lewis Goodall) 1658317956
He then received a standing ovation from the Conservative benches, although Theresa May was one of the members who did not join in with the clapping.
His sign off was a direct quote from classic squeal Terminator 2: Judgement Day, with the lines spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin.
As you’d expect, it provoked quite the reaction online.
\u201cJoke of a Prime Minister to the end! Demonstrating the worst of the hierarchal,elite and crooked people he\u2019s served in and around Westminster. \u201cHasta La Do One\u201dyou\u2019ve brought shame on our country and politics!\u201d— Gary Neville (@Gary Neville) 1658318390
\u201cDid Boris Johnson really end his final #PMQs with a Terminator reference, saying \u201cHasta la vista, baby\u201d?\n\nOf course he did, but it\u2019s rather fitting giving his premiership is very soon to be terminated itself.\u201d— Liam O'Dell (@Liam O'Dell) 1658317863
\u201c'Hasta la vista, baby!' chortles Boris Johnson in his last words to Parliament as Prime Minister, while Tory MPs give him a roaring standing ovation - after terminating him for being useless. A suitably ludicrous end to an absurd premiership.\u201d— Piers Morgan (@Piers Morgan) 1658318003
\u201c"Hasta la vista, baby" wtf? I'll bet he opens every call to Zelensky with, "Whaaaaasssssuuuuuuuuuppp?"\u201d— Stuart Houghton in normal human form (@Stuart Houghton in normal human form) 1658317913
\u201cThe last Tory to use \u2018hasta la vista\u2019 in parliament was\u2026.Chris Pincher. 1 April 2011\u201d— Jim Pickard (@Jim Pickard) 1658318732
\u201c"Mission largely accomplished....Hasta la vista!".\n@BorisJohnson ends with another hint he may return one day.\nTheresa May joins MPs standing but pointedly refuses to clap\u201d— Paul Waugh (@Paul Waugh) 1658317828
Bizarrely, it’s not the first time Johnson has referenced the film in an official capacity, after previously mentioning it during a discussion on the future of artificial intelligence.
Boris Johnson says Terminatorwww.youtube.com
Johnson also signed off in his last Commons appearance as prime minister by hurling insults at Keir Starmer, branding him a “pointless human bollard”.
Speaking from the famous despatch box for the final time, he also called the Labour leader “Captain Hindsight” and boasted his successor would “wipe the floor” with him “like some household detergent”.
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