Inside David Cameron’s personal Brexit

In the days following David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister, Michael Gove tried to persuade the Cameroons to back Boris Johnson for the job. He argued that the former London mayor was the real continuity candidate. While Johnson would strike a very different path on Europe, Gove argued, he would keep Cameron’s domestic agenda going in a way that Theresa May would not.

This was something Gove got right. But the referendum result was far too raw for this argument to work. The rest, as they say, is history.

Since May became Prime Minister, it’s been clear that she does not represent continuity. May is her own woman. The Cameroons were taken aback by her clearout of the Downing Street policy unit, then horrified when she removed so many of them from their ministerial jobs. Cameron has privately described her reordering of the government as ‘a purge’. Now, they are angry because she is pointedly reversing many of his signature policies.