BORIS Johnson took a vengeful swipe at Rishi Sunak today by implying he would like to launch his mutinous ex-Chancellor into space.
After roaring through the skies in a fighter jet, the maverick PM said: “I leave it to you to imagine who I would like at this stage to send into orbit.”
Mr Johnson has refused to endorse any of his wannabe successors but his allies have been ripping into Mr Sunak, fuelling speculation the PM secretly wants him to lose.
And last night Mr Sunak joined fellow candidates promising to freeze out Mr Johnson from any future Cabinet.
Selfie footage emerged today of Mr Johnson’s ride in a Typhoon plane at RAF Coningsby last week.
As he zoomed high in the air alongside the flagship Voyager plane he uses to travel on overseas trips, the Top Gun-like PM gave a thumbs up.
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Speaking at the Farnborough Air Show today, the PM likened his hurtling ride in a Typhoon to his turbulent time in No10.
He compared his Brexit battles and Covid handling to “barrel rolls” and “loop the loops” as he looked back on his “astonishing feats” after “three years in the cockpit”.
Mr Johnson said: “I am about to hand the controls over seamlessly to someone else – but whoever it is I can tell you the twin engines of this conservative government will roar on.”
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Mr Johnson last night roused the Tory benches in Parliament with a tub-thumping speech rattling through his greatest hits as PM.
Trumpeting his historic 2019 victory that crushed Labour in their Red Wall backyard, he triumphantly declared: “We sent the great blue Tory ferret so far up their trouser leg they couldn’t move.”
He admitted he may now be more popular in Kyiv than in Kensington after leading the Western response against Putin.
The outgoing PM proudly insisted : “We’ve had to take some of the bleakest decisions since the war and I believe that we got the big calls right.”
Spluttering Sir Keir Starmer was left briefly stuck as fired-up Tories drowned out his attacks on the PM.
The pair locked horns for one of the final times during the Commons vote of confidence in the government.
Mr Johnson was expected to win the late night vote with the support of Conservative MPs.