‘Hasta La Vista, Baby’: Boris Johnson’s Final Words to Parliament as Prime Minister

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of
Photo by House of Commons/PA Images via Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

Boris Johnson signed off his final appearance before Parliament at Prime Minister’s Questions in citing a particular California governor known for remarking “I’ll be back”, telling the chamber “hasta la vista, baby”.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced the House of Commons on Wednesday for the weekly ritual of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), the last to take place before the house goes into its summer recess. Johnson’s appearance would consequently be the last PMQs of his time in power, assuming a handover to the next leader of the governing party takes place as planned on September 5th.

Trading blows with the constellation of left-wing opposition parties in Parliament over his record in office, Johnson used the final remarks of the debate to outline his own view of his legacy. Pointing out his historic election win giving the Conservatives a considerable governing majority, delivering Brexit, and rolling out coronavirus vaccines than other comparable nations, the outgoing PM said his mission was “largely accomplished, for now”. Boris said in Parliament:

The last few years have been the greatest privilege of my life. It’s true that I helped to get the biggest Tory majority for 40 years and a huge realignment in UK politics… we have transformed our democracy and restored our national independence.

We’ve helped to get this country through a pandemic and helped save another country from barbarism. And frankly, that’s enough to be going on with. Mission largely accomplished, for now… I want to thank everybody here, and hasta la vista, baby!

Johnson’s final line of “hasta la vista” was met with rapturous applause from Tory MPs in the chamber, but some will naturally wonder what exactly what was meant by the collocation of mission accomplished “for now” and the quoting of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s touchstone catchphrase, which can be understood as ‘until next time’. Not forgetting, of course, the former Californian governor’s other Terminator-era moneymaker: “I’ll be back”.

As frequently told in Westminster at the moment, Boris Johnson’s political hero is wartime leader Winston Churchill, who was unceremoniously thrown out of power after making the difficult wartime decisions but made his way back into power after six years of Labour rule. Perhaps Boris Johnson, so the scuttlebutt goes, sees himself again in that Churchillian mould and hopes to return to power when the rancour of the Covid era has passed.

Perhaps. The fact is Conservative leaders once enjoyed unimaginably long terms of service: Stanley Baldwin enjoyed 13 years from the 1920s, Churchill 15 years, Ted Heath ten years to 1975. Thatcher too had 15 years at the helm of her party. These days the Conservatives cycle through leaders faster than parliamentary terms: Boris and his predecessor May barely scraped three years apiece.

Making a Prime Ministerial comeback isn’t impossible: Harold Wilson was the last with a split term. But taking back control of the Conservative Party? That would be a first.

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