CAMERON QUITS TO MAKE HIS MILLIONS
Former PM steps down as MP to make fortune – and to avoid clashes with May
DAVID Cameron yesterday completed his spectacular fall from political grace – and is now poised to reap millions of pounds outside Westminster. The former Prime Minister – who won the first outright Tory majority in 23 years less than 18 months ago – stepped down saying he did not want to be a ‘distraction’ to Theresa May.
Friends said he feared he would not always be able to support the policies of Mrs May – who has banished his allies to the backbenches and is systematically dismantling his legacy.
However, the blow of his departure will be softened by the multimillion-pound fortune he is now expected to make as an ex-PM.
He is set to follow the lead of Tony Blair, who has raked in an
estimated £100million since leaving Downing Street in 2007.
Mr Cameron, who was in Downing Street until only two months ago, is expected to start by penning his memoirs – earning a fee of several million pounds – and joining the speaking circuit, where Mr Blair can command up to £250,000.
Mr Cameron’s announcement, which stunned Westminster, was a final U-turn by the ex-Tory leader.
Before slumping to historic defeat in the EU referendum, he had promised his constituents he would stay on until at least 2020 and might even stand as their MP again after that.
As recently as July 13, in his last speech as PM, he pledged to watch from the backbenches – but hung around for barely two weeks in which the Commons was actually sitting.
The decision paves the way for Mr Cameron to add millions of pounds to his family fortune. As well as speaking and book deals, he is likely to seek a job running a major international organisation in charge of overseas aid or countering extremism.
Mr Cameron rang Mrs May – with who he had a fractious relationship when in power – yesterday morning.
He insisted the timing of his announcement, just as the new PM’s plans for grammar schools in England and Wales was being presented to MPs, was ‘coincidental’.
But he did not pretend he does not have differences of opinion with Mrs May, who has also junked his policies on childhood obesity and the deficit.
Mr Cameron told ITV News: ‘As a former PM, it’s very difficult to sit as a backbencher and not be an enormous diversion and distraction from what the Government is doing. I don’t want to be that distraction.’
He praised Mrs May for making a ‘cracking start’, adding: ‘This decision has got nothing to do with any one individual issue and that way the timing, I promise, is coincidental.’
But he dropped a hint that, if he stayed on the backbenches, he might get a reputation as someone who caused trouble for his successor.
He said: ‘It goes to a bigger picture really, which is, whatever the issue as a former PM being a backbench MP, it’s difficult not to be a distraction and diversion and therefore build a reputation for yourself in politics that I don’t really want to have.’
His allies said that, as the referendum result sunk in over the summer, he realised that it was impossible to carry on. A by-election will be held in his safe Oxfordshire seat within weeks – bringing down the curtain on the career of a man who triggered huge revolts within his party over gay marriage and foreign aid, but delivered its first majority government for 18 years in 2015.
Mrs May said: ‘I was proud to serve in David Cameron’s government – and under his leadership we achieved great things. Not just stabilising the economy, but also making great strides in delivering serious social reform. His commitment to a one-nation government is one I will continue.
‘I thank him for everything he has done for the Conservative Party and the country and I wish him and his family well for the future.’
But the reaction from other Tories was mixed.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson suggested Mr Cameron should have stayed on: ‘Sorry to see David Cameron standing down. He transformed the party and country. Parliament benefits from experience of office on backbenches’.
But William Hague, now Lord Hague, said: ‘Right decision by David Cameron to leave Commons – former Prime Ministers are either accused of doing too little or being a distraction’.
George Osborne said: ‘Sorry to see my great friend stepping down – he loved being Witney’s MP. I know how difficult this decision has been for him.’
Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory Treasurer who has repeatedly clashed with the ex-PM, said: ‘Sooner or later David Cameron will emerge as Lord Cameron and rightly so.’
David Davis, the Brexit Secretary who lost out on being Tory leader to Mr Cameron, said: ‘He was a very good Prime Minister’.
Nadine Dorries, who attacked Mr Cameron as an ‘out of touch posh boy’, said on Twitter: ‘David Cameron expected every MP to support him 100 per cent regardless of view or principle. Appears he can’t quite manage the loyalty thing himself.’
‘He transformed the country’