David Cameron has chaired his last ever, emotional, Cabinet meeting this morning, with just a final Prime Minister’s Questions lying between him and freedom. He may want to follow the example of Tony Blair and have a memorable sign off such as ‘and that is that, the end’, though it’s not clear whether he’ll find quite so many MPs keen to give him a standing ovation as he walks out, the Prime Minister who accidentally took Britain out of the European Union.
But what Cameron chooses to do next is interesting. He has already said that he wants to stand again as MP for Witney in 2020. Of course, the way MPs are able to write their own job descriptions means that he can also go off and earn plenty of money and do lots of interesting things outside of Parliament as well as serving his constituency. But there exists in Cameron a deep commitment to public service, and a sense of responsibility to those who come after him. He believes in the importance of senior, experienced figures staying on in Parliament to advise and warn their successors about their decisions. Over the past few years, he has also worried that it is increasingly difficult to hold on to those who have finished in high office.
Even if he takes a low key role on the backbenches in future, the soon-to-be-former Prime Minister is likely to make helpful, rather than bitter, contributions to political debate. He sees John Major as a better model for life after Downing Street than Tony Blair, and as someone who has always been admirably good at relaxing, doesn’t have the attributes of a backseat driver. He might, though, choose to pursue his interest in life chances and social mobility that he never got a chance to fulfil as Prime Minister because of his early exit. So tomorrow won’t be the end for Cameron – just the start of another type of public service.
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