UPDATE: Cameron makes final speech as UK prime minister

UPDATED WITH CAMERON PUBLIC REMARKS ON DEPARTURE. COPY UNCHANGED AFTER PAR 6

LONDON (AA) – In his final hours as U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron said he hoped Britain remained “as close to the European Union as we can be” following the vote for Brexit.

Leaving his official residence at 10 Downing Street for the last time on Wednesday afternoon, he said it had been the “greatest honor of my life to serve our country as prime minister.”

Addressing a crowded media pen as his wife and three young children stood next to him, Cameron said: “It’s not been an easy journey and of course we’ve not got every decision right but I do believe that today, our country is much stronger.

“Above all, it was about turning around the economy and with a deficit cut by two-thirds, two-and-a-half million more people in work, and one million more businesses, there can be no doubt that our economy is immeasurably stronger.”

Speaking of his successor, Home Secretary Theresa May, he added that he was “delighted that for the second time in British history the new prime minister will be a woman, and once again a Conservative.”

Earlier, Cameron took questions from lawmakers in the House of Commons, where he said it was vital that Britain retained close ties with the EU following last month’s vote to leave the bloc.

“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 for security,” he said in the televised comments.

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

In a generally light-hearted session, lawmakers paid tribute to Cameron, who is stepping down after losing the EU referendum.

“The last thing I'd say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics,” Cameron said in his final remarks to Parliament as prime minister. “You can get a lot of things done. And that, in the end -- the public service, the national interest -- that is what it's all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it.”

In a reference to the first question he asked then-Premier Tony Blair after becoming opposition leader in 2005, Cameron concluded: “After all, as I once said, I was the future once.”

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn congratulated him on introducing same-sex marriage and securing the release of British resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo Bay during his six-year term in office.

The outgoing prime minister was applauded by lawmakers as he left the chamber.

He will visit the queen at Buckingham Palace later to formally tender his resignation, and May is expected to be appointed shortly afterwards. He will remain a lawmaker for Witney in central England.