Outgoing British PM gives a light-hearted farewell but urges UK to stay close to the EU

Goodbye David Cameron, hello Theresa May and her 'bold, positive role' for Britain.

Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister, David Cameron, accompanied by his wife Samantha, daughters Nancy and Florence (C) and son Arthur, bids farewell outside Number 10 Downing Street on his last day in office on July 13, 2016. Peter Nicholls / ReutersShow less

LONDON // The outgoing British prime minister David Cameron on Wednesday urged his successor Theresa May to try to keep Britain close to the EU even while negotiating to leave it.

“My advice to my successor, who is a brilliant negotiator, is that we should try to be as close to the European Union as we can be, for the benefits of trade, of cooperation and of security,” he told MPs.in a packed House of Commons.

“The Channel will not get any wider once we leave the European Union and that is the relationship that we should seek.”

A few hours later, as Mrs May stood outside Number 10 Downing Street, there came a different message from Europe, as Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission urged the new prime minister to get on with taking Britain out of the EU.

He said he wished Mrs May “every success” but that the UK and the EU could not put off addressing their “new situation”

Though she was in the Remain camp in the referendum, like Mr Cameron, Mrs May has said there can be no going back on Brexit. But as she took up office as Britain’s second woman prime minister on Wednesday evening, she promised to forge a “bold, new, positive” role for Britain outside the EU.

“Following the referendum, we face a time of great national change and I know because we are Great Britain, we will rise to the challenge,” she said.

The transition from one prime minister to another happened swiftly. At 5.30pm, Buckingham palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II had accepted David Cameron’s resignation. Twenty minutes later came the announcement that the Queen had invited Mrs May to form a new government.

After six years and 62 days, Mr Cameron’s last appearance in parliament as prime minister was a light-hearted affair with much good-natured banter even from the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The regular Wednesday session of prime minister’s questions always begins with the prime minister listing his engagements for the day. Mr Cameron remarked that apart from a visit to Buckingham Palace to officially tender his resignation to the Queen, his diary was looking “remarkably light”.

He thanked his “amazing”wife, Samantha, who was watching from the public gallery with their three children. “I was the future, once,” he quipped. He then left the chamber amid much backslapping and a standing ovation.

Mr Cameron had staked everything on his ability to persuade the country to vote to remain in the European Union in the June 23 referendum. It was a gamble he lost when Britain voted to leave. Having said he would stay on to oversee Brexit negotiations, he changed his mind and resigned.

The removal vans were already parked outside Downing Street by the time he left the House of Commons with others waiting to move Mrs May in. She will begin assembling her ministerial team on Thursday, her first day in office.

The next European summit is not until October but the EU are not standing still in the meantime. German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi are meeting in late August to discuss Brexit. Britain is not invited.

* Agence France Presse