Who turned up to support Boris Johnson as he quit as prime minister?

PM says he regrets not being able to ‘see through so many ideas and projects’

Boris Johnson has resigned as prime minister, with a Tory Party leadership contest to replace him set to get underway next week.

In a speech outside No 10 Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, Mr Johnson said that it had been an "immense privilege" to serve the country.

He said that he wanted to stay on in the job and expressed regret at not being able to "see through so many ideas and projects".

In a parting shot at MPs who moved against him, Mr Johnson lamented Westminster's "herd instinct" as he apparently refused to take any responsibility for his own failings by choosing not to mention any of the scandals which ultimately brought him down.

His wife Carrie was among those watching his address outside the famous No 10 black door as the world's media assembled to hear what he had to say.

(Getty Images)

She was joined by a number of Downing Street aides, staff and loyalist MPs, some of whom supported the PM right to the bitter end.

Nadine Dorries, the ultra loyalist culture secretary, and Ben Elliott, the Tory Party chairman, could be seen chatting with Ms Johnson as the crowd waited for Mr Johnson to appear.

Conor Burns, the Northern Ireland minister and Brendan Clarke-Smith, the red wall MP for Bassetlaw were spotted on the estate.

Hardline Brexiteer Peter Bone was also there to watch Mr Johnson bid farewell to the British public.

Following Mr Johnson's resignation, the UK is set for its fourth PM in a little over six years - the fastest turnover in new occupants of 10 Downing Street for nearly a century.

Since the summer of 2016, the country has witnessed the last weeks of David Cameron's premiership, the start and end of Theresa May's time as PM, and now the entirety of Boris Johnson's spell in the top job, with another prime minister due in place by the autumn.

There was a similarly rapid turnover in the 1970s, but of the four prime ministers in office during the period 1974 to 1979 - Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher - Wilson had already served as PM for much of the 1960s.

To find a comparable turnover of new prime ministers, it is necessary to go back almost 100 years.

The period from summer 1922 to the end of 1924 saw four different people hold the position of premier, all doing the job for the first time.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

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It began with David Lloyd George (Liberal), who was coming to the end of a long spell as prime minister, followed by Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) who resigned after only a few months due to illness. Then came Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), who lasted only a few months before failing to win a majority at a general election, and finally Ramsay MacDonald (Labour) who led a short-lived minority government.

Turnover of prime ministers in the UK has sped up in recent decades.

In the 15 years since the summer of 2007, Downing Street will have welcomed five different PMs: Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and his successor.

But in the 28 years between 1979 and 2007, only three people held the top job: Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.