Advertisement

Philip May winces as he watches PM in tears

Theresa May's husband Philip was caught grimacing as she sobbed at the end of her resignation speech.

Despite displaying a sense of stoicism as she set out her timetable for leaving Number 10, her voice cracked as she delivered her final sentence.

"I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold – the second female prime minister, but certainly not the last.

"I do so with no ill-will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love," she said, fighting back tears.

It was perhaps a fitting end to her time in office – revealing her emotions when it was already too late.

As Change UK leader Heidi Allen, who quit the Tories over Brexit earlier this year, speculated: "Why didn't we see that emotion more? Things could have been so different..."

It was a stark contrast to her endlessly repeated "strong and stable" mantra, or insistence during the 2017 general election campaign that "nothing has changed".