Cameron quits

David Cameron has stood down as the MP for Witney with immediate effect, two months after resigning as prime minister.

The former Conservative leader’s legacy will be defined by his unleashing of an unbridled campaign of austerity and the economic uncertainty of Brexit, said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.

Cameron announced his resignation from the Oxfordshire seat during an interview with ITV, saying he did not want to be a “distraction” to Theresa May’s fledgling administration.

“I have thought about this long and hard over the summer and I have decided the right thing to do is to stand down as the member of parliament for Witney. There will be a by-election.

“It isn’t really possible to be a proper backbench MP as a former prime minister. I think everything you do will become a big distraction and a big diversion from what the government needs to do for our country,” he said.

McCluskey said it was inevitable that Cameron would leave frontline politics after his crushing defeat during the EU referendum, in which he headed the campaign to remain.

McCluskey said, “David Cameron out of parliament is the logical consequence of Britain out of Europe. Unions are now working to make sure Cameron’s is the only job lost because of his Brexit blunder.

“But while he may have decided to walk away the problems his austerity has created for the people of this country remain. His term in office will cast a long shadow over working people for generations to come.”

Meanwhile it has been reported that Cameron’s side-kick, former chancellor George Osborne, is expected to have to find a new seat as an MP if he wishes to remain in Parliament after 2020, due to a review of constituency borders which will be released today (September 13).

His seat of Tatton, in Cheshire, is understood to be one of 50 set to be abolished, after David Cameron asked the Boundary Commission to shrink Britain’s constituency map from 600 seats to 650 in an effort to “cut the cost of politics.”