TORY MPs jumped to their feet to give Theresa May a rapturous send off at her last Prime Minister Questions yesterday.
The many attempted coups, numerous parliamentary defeats, and even occasionally violent language, was all seemingly forgotten as backbenchers stood up to applaud their outgoing leader.
While the SNP, Labour, and Plaid Cymru mostly remained seated, Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems joined in on the ovation.
It was a bumper edition of question time, with the half hour session lasting 63 minutes, making it the longest PMQs in history.
But rather than May’s legacy dominating, it was the prospect of Boris Johnson’s premiership that agitated most MPs.
READ MORE: Lest we forget Theresa May’s legacy of nothing
The SNP’s Ian Blackford paid tribute to the outgoing Tory leader and wished her and her husband, Philip “all the best for the future”.
“It is fair to say that we have had our differences — it has not often been a meeting of minds,” he said.
Blackford told May that her successor Boris Johnson had “no mandate from the people” as Prime Minister.
He added: “The Government he is busy forming have no mandate in Scotland. Scotland deserves better.
“A snap YouGov poll shows that 60% of people in Scotland are dismayed and disappointed by the new Prime Minister.”
Raising fears Johnson might prorogue Parliament in a bid to get a no-deal Brexit through, Blackford urged the outgoing Tory leader to back an SNP motion “rejecting the idea of this House being shut down before November”.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper said that while she disagreed with May, she had “long respected her resilience, commitment to public duty and seriousness, as well as her work on national security.”
Cooper added: “She knows that I once said to her that I believed she was not the kind of person who would take this country into a chaotic no-deal scenario, not least because of the advice she had had on the risks to our national security.
“I am fearful about her successor, so can she reassure me that she really thinks, in her heart, that her successor will take those national security warnings as seriously as she has?”
May said she had “every confidence that my successor will take all the issues that he needs to look at in making these decisions and others across Government as seriously as they need to be taken.”
In response to a question from Jeremy Corbyn’s May started on what appeared to be a tribute to the Labour leader.
“He and I are very different people and very different politicians and we approach the issues the country faces in different ways.
“I have spent all but one of my years in the House on the Front Bench trying to implement the policies I believe in, while he has spent most of his time on the back benches campaigning for what he believes in, often against his own party, but what we have in common is a commitment to our constituencies.
“I saw that after the terrorist attack in Finsbury Park mosque in his constituency. Perhaps then I could finish by saying this: as a party leader who has accepted when her time is up, might I suggest that perhaps the time is now for him to do the same?”
May’s call was backed by former Labour MP Ian Austin, who quit the party in February.
He said: “Can I start by associating myself completely with the final answer the Prime Minister gave to the Leader of the Opposition about his need to consider his future.
“And can I tell her this as well… it is absolutely clear to me that the vast majority of Labour MPs agree with her too.”
Standing alongside her husband, Philip, outside No 10 with staff and aides watching, May gave a brief farewell address before heading off to tender her resignation.
During the speech, a protester outside the gates of Downing Street shouted “Stop Brexit”, prompting May to pause. Philip said: “That wasn’t me.”
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