David cameron

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. A week after Britain backed Brexit, politics shows no sign of slowing down. David Cameron has resigned, Michael Gove has pulled out of Boris Johnson's leadership campaign before launching his own. And Boris has decided not to run in the contest. We now have a final slate of five candidates vying for the top job. In his Spectator cover piece this week, James Forsyth says the Tory party is in a 'deeply emotional state'. But he also points out that the leadership candidates who have emerged 'seem strangely united in their vision for post-Brexit Britain'.

Rare to see a plank-walker at the helm of the ship. Today there were two. Cameron has accepted the inevitable and his demeanour at the despatch box was relaxed, amused, peaceable. Buoyant at times. Even foes like Bernard Jenkin exchanged warm words with him. And he handled Corbyn with extreme mildness until a rush of blood seized him at the end. ‘For heaven’s sake, man, go!’ he lashed out. But go where? Jezza’s impersonation of Rasputin is his best performance yet. He’s indestructible. Last weekend he was hacked to pieces by a flash-mob of tooled-up colleagues. He then suffered a thundering defeat in a no-confidence vote which merely boosted his confidence in his powers of survival. Today he stood up and was greeted by three waves of sound.

George Osborne has ruled himself out of the Tory party leadership contest. The Chancellor said that whilst he accepted the outcome of the referendum, 'I am not the person to provide the unity my party needs at this time'. Osborne went on to say that: 'As for my ow future, I will not be a candidate in the Conservative leadership election to come' Osborne's decision is hardly a surprise. He had become the face of a 'Remain' campaign which angered many Tory MPs. In particular, his 'punishment Brexit budget' - which he suggested would be implemented in the event of a vote for 'Out' - had a large group within his party furious at what they saw as an attempt to scare voters into sticking with the status quo.

David Cameron came to the House of Commons this afternoon to update the House on Brexit. Cameron was greeted by the loudest Tory cheer that I’ve heard of seven years of sitting in the press gallery. He was in remarkably good spirits, considering what has just happened. Jeremy Corbyn’s predicament appear to have cheered Cameron up. He joked that the new Labour MP for Tooting should keep her phone on as she might be offered a job at any moment. He also joked at Corbyn’s expense that he thought he was having a bad day until he saw what was happening to Corbyn. When it came to the process of leaving, Cameron was emphatic that it was up to the UK to choose when to invoke Article 50—and that he would leave that up to the new Prime Minister.

Ahead of the EU referendum, David Cameron's sister-in-law declared that she would never vote Conservative again if Leave won. Now that Brexit is firmly on the agenda -- and her brother-in-law set to stand down -- Emily Sheffield is preparing to join the Labour party. Samantha Cameron's sister has taken to Twitter to ask how quickly she can join, adding that she only ever voted Conservative for David: While this news doesn't come as a huge surprise -- given that she tweeted a Sadiq Khan campaign messages during the London mayoral election -- it does beg the question of her sister's voting preference. After all, back in 2010 Ed Vaizey claimed that Samantha 'may have voted Labour' in the past. Will she too be tempted to vote red now the Brexiteers have won?

I suspect a lot of people who voted out have mixed emotions this weekend, especially given how emotional the debate became. People on both sides did go a little bit mad. My Twitter feed reminded me of that Danny Boyle film 28 Days Later: you watch with horror as friend after friend (on either side of the debate) is infected with the Human Rage Virus. All of a sudden, it’s not possible to have friendly disagreements: you turn into The Enemy for them. And it’s not just a social media thing: there are still people, this weekend, afraid to tell their friends and family how they voted. Alex Massie’s piece warning England about referendum rage turned out to be prophetic. And I suspect that Cameron, himself, suffered a bit of referendum rage.

David Cameron has announced his decision to step down as Prime Minister following the vote to leave the European Union. Here's what he said on the steps of No.10 Downing Street this morning: The country has just taken part in a giant democratic exercise – perhaps the biggest in our history. Over 33 million people – from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar – have all had their say. We should be proud of the fact that in these islands we trust the people with these big decisions. We not only have a parliamentary democracy, but on questions about the arrangements for how we are governed, there are times when it is right to ask the people themselves - and that is what we have done.

David Cameron bet everything on winning this European Union referendum. He lost. His resignation was inevitable, but the timing was not. Indeed, scores of pro-Brexit Tory MPs had signed a letter asking him to stay as Prime Minister - or, at the very least, not walk out of No.10 on the morning after the vote. Yes, he would not be the best person to lead Brexit talks – but these talks could be several months, perhaps years away. So there was no reason to rush for the exit and plenty reason not to do so. Brexit vote was always going to create uncertainty in the financial markets. Adding political uncertainty, in the form of a Prime Ministerial resignation, was never going to help.