The Cameron legacy: engineer of Brexit and a stable coalition government

Prime ministers often start office with the conviction that the potency of their agenda will one way or another break the mould of British politics. Most fail but, in some respects at least, David Cameron succeeded.

As of today, the great shake-up that will define his legacy is, of course, the one that hangs over us: the ending of our membership of the European Union. A decision of monumental importance, we won’t appreciate the full scale of the fallout until we see whether it also gives rise to the break-up of the United Kingdom.

In time, history will also register the Cameron era for another constitutional shake-up — one that the former prime minister will feel far better about. Following his “big, open and comprehensive offer” to Nick Clegg in May 2010, he demonstrated coalition government is a perfectly viable and stable option in contemporary politics. Given the erosion of our two-party system, more such administrations will follow.

Prime ministers don’t get to choose how they are remembered, and he will be no exception. Any hopes that it will be for his social reforms (with the exception of equal marriage), or the “big society”, are in vain. But breaking the constitutional mould? For good or ill, that he did achieve.

This first appeared in the Observer.