1. The 2015 general election fraud probe
Seven police forces have launched investigations into Conservative MPs for possible election fraud. The police are understood to be looking at election expenses of at least 10 sitting MPs.
The investigations centre on whether costs to transport and accommodate bus-loads of Tory activists to marginal seats should have been declared by candidates.
@jonsnowC4 questions @David_Cameron over alleged Tory election fraud for the first time #ElectionExpenseshttps://t.co/k5xirllN5s
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 15, 2016
As Tory leader, Cameron would have had to answer the awkward legal questions surrounding this controversy. Having announced today he’s throwing in the towel, he’s likely to have been succeeded by the time this problem gathers a proper head of steam.
2. EU negotiations
Now that Britain has pulled the plug on its EU membership, it is highly likely to take a number of years to redefine its relationship with that infamously bureaucratic organisation.
By announcing he’s quitting today, Cameron has just pulled off the neat trick of avoiding a series of insufferably long nights in Brussels trying to hammer out deals with EU politicos who hate Britain’s referendum result more than we’ll ever know.
3. His children’s schooling
In Westminster it has long been thought an affectation that the Camerons chose to send their daughter Nancy to a state school in central London, the Grey Coat Hospital School.
With Cameron gone by the autumn, he will be free to send them to private schools if – as is widely believed – he wishes to do so. His son, Elwen, is understood to be heading for Eton. His daughters, like their mother Samantha, might end up at Marlborough College.
Mail on Sunday front page:
Exclusive – Camerons enter son for top private school#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/egkUUttwlL— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) January 30, 2016
4.Renegotiating the Barnett Formula
Had Cameron hung on as PM, he would now be facing a deeply unpleasant task in light of EU rebates drying up: having to settle the way Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland are funded. The Barnett Formula dictates the level of public spending in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and is based on the population of each country and which powers are devolved to them.
Controversially, they each receive greater public expenditure per head than England under the formula. An extra £1,623 per head, or 19 per cent, is given to Scotland compared to England. Wales and Northern Ireland do better out of it than England as well. His successor can look forward to dealing with this.
5. Announcing when to stand down
During the 2015 election campaign Cameron slipped up badly when he announced to BBC reporter James Landale that he wouldn’t serve a third term as prime minister if the Conservatives remained in government – which, of course, they did.
This immediately fired the starting gun on who would succeed him as party leader because it was apparent that he would have to stand aside for his successor before the country went to the polls again in 2020. Now that he has resigned, he has snuffed out this thorny problem and can look forward to the next phase of his life.
