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‘Hope this gets a Bafta for Best Comedy’: Newsnight viewers go wild over resignation-themed end credits

Newsnight viewers have said the show should win a Bafta after it replaced its end credits with a list of all the ministerial resignations so far, set to an acoustic version of “Bittersweet Symphony”.

As the BBC One programme drew to a close, the list – consisting of dozens of ministers and beginning with Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak – rolled down the screen. It ended with the words: “Boris Johnson – Prime Minister ?”

The list was shown with London Grammar’s live version of The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” playing over the top of it.

A clip of the show’s closing scene has since gone viral on Twitter, with one person posting: “Hope this from the end of tonight’s Newsnight gets a Bafta for Best Comedy.”

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“OK it’s been a long day but I just hit this with sound on and it has truly finished me off,” added another.

A third wrote: “Holy f*** this is beautiful.”

A fourth wrote out the lyrics to the song, which seem to eerily describe Boris Johnson’s recent behaviour: “No change, I can change/ I can change, I can change/ But I’m here in my mould/ I am here in my mould/ And I’m a million different people from one day to the next/ I can’t change my mould/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

A fifth added: “Hilarious outro to Newsnight , breathy acoustic version of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ whilst the names of the resigned MPs roll up like obituaries, over a black and white photo of an anguished looking Boris Johnson.”

The Independent has contacted representatives for The Verve and London Grammar for comment on the track’s use.

This morning (7 July), Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis became the fourth Cabinet minister to tender his resignation, warning the Tory party is now “past the point of no return”.

The collapse in Cabinet support follows the double resignations of chancellor Sunak and health secretary Javid in response to Johnson’s handling of misconduct allegations against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, whom the prime minister promoted despite knowledge of the claims.

Johnson fired housing secretary Michael Gove on Wednesday night (6 July) for calling publicly on him to resign, while attorney general Suella Braverman – who remains in post – did the same and revealed ambitions to replace him as prime minister.

As of last night, Johnson continued to defy calls from his own team to step down, according to a senior ally, who said he had vowed to “fight on”.

Follow live updates on the resignations here.