CAMERON: I WON’T SERVE 3RD TERM
PM drops bombshell in TV interview. But has he put his authority at risk?
DAVID Cameron risked undermining his prime ministerial authority last night by ruling out a third term in power.
If re-elected in May, Mr Cameron said he would serve a full five years but then quit Number 10.
He suggested Boris Johnson, Theresa May and George Osborne as possible successors. The bombshell move, which stunned senior colleagues, could kick off a leadership contest that would dominate any second term. In opposi- tion, Mr Cameron had said that Tony Blair’s setting a departure date was ‘the absolute killer’ for his final term in office. The Prime Minister’s seemingly off-the-cuff remarks came in a profile interview with the BBC, using his constituency kitchen as a backdrop.
He said: ‘There definitely comes a time where a fresh pair of eyes and fresh leadership would be good and the Conservative Party has some great people coming up: the Theresa Mays and the George Osbornes and the Boris Johnsons.
‘The third term is not something I’m contemplating. Terms are like Shredded Wheat: two are wonderful, but three might just be too many.’
Mr Cameron’s comments were meant
to show he would not go ‘on and on’, as Margaret Thatcher famously said she would. There had been speculation he wanted to quit in 018 after a promised in/ out referendum on the EU.
Tory sources said Mr Cameron would have to allow a new leader time to establish themselves well before the 0 0 election.
In October 004, and under intense pressure from the Gordon Brown camp, Mr Blair declared he would not stand a fourth time. He is widely seen to have lost authority within his party from that point.
Labour last night accused Mr Cameron of arrogance in discussing a potential third term without winning a second. The party is considering running ‘vote Cameron, get Osborne or Boris’ messages in the election.
Downing Street last night scrambled to limit the fall-out. ‘He is clear he will serve a full second term, and we’ll cross the bridge of what happens in 0 0 when we get there,’ said a No 10 source. ‘The Prime Min- ister thought the question meant whether he would serve a full third term.’
Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, a policy adviser to Mr Cameron, said the PM’s response came from honesty rather than arrogance. He added: ‘You will remember Tony Blair deliberately not answering the question. He said he would do a full term and that didn’t prove to be true.’
Another ally of Mr Cameron dismissed the idea that the announcement risked undermining him as it had Mr Blair: ‘Tony Blair was under huge and constant pressure from Gordon Brown to stand down and that pressure increased from the moment he said he would not fight another election. David is hardly in that position.’
As well as the three candidates Mr Cam- eron identified, possible contenders for his job include Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
A friend of Mr Johnson said of the PM’s remarks: ‘Why? And why now?’
Douglas Alexander, Labour’s chief election strategist, said: ‘It is typically arrogant of David Cameron to presume a third Tory term in 0 0 before the British public have been given the chance to have their say.’
In the lengthy BBC profile, Mr Cameron told deputy political editor James Landale that he considered his job only ‘half done’.
Labour’s Ed Miliband was also interviewed in his kitchen and mocked when it turned out it was one of two.