Boris Johnson quoted from The Lion King in a meeting with Number 10 staff on Friday morning in a bid to boost morale.
The embattled Prime Minister faced his Downing Street team after a string of high profile resignations last night, admitting "shock and shell" had been hurled at him in recent weeks.
Mr Johnson is said to have told staff it was a "privilege" to work in Government and urged them to continue helping him deliver on his mission to "improve lives and spread opportunity".
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Towards the conclusion of his address, the Prime Minister's spokesman confirmed Mr Johnson invoked Rafiki, the philosophical mandrill of Disney's The Lion King.
He said: "As Rafiki in the Lion King says, change is good, and change is necessary even though it's tough.
"We've got to get on with our job of serving the people of this country."
The comments came after long-term ally to Mr Johnson Munira Mirza quit as the director of that policy unit in anger over his use of a “scurrilous” Jimmy Savile smear against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Then chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds and director of communications Jack Doyle followed her out of the door on Thursday.
The departures piled fresh pressure on the Prime Minister as he battles to remain in charge, with 13 Conservative MPs publicly calling for his resignation over partygate.
More are believed to have done so privately but the number of letters to the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories has not yet hit the 54 required to trigger a no-confidence vote.
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