British prime minister David Cameron, who has led the Conservative Party since 2005 and occupied No 10 Downing Street for five years, has said that he will not seek election for a third term if he wins May's general election.
“I’ve said I’ll stand for a full second term, but I think after that it will be time for new leadership. Terms are like Shredded Wheat – two are wonderful, three might just be too many,” he told the BBC, as he was filmed cooking in the kitchen of his Witney home in Oxfordshire.
The Conservatives would need "fresh eyes and fresh leadership" by the end of the next parliament, Mr Cameron said, name-checking three of the most likely replacements: "[We've] got some great people coming up – the Theresa Mays, and the George Osbornes, and the Boris Johnsons."
In truth, the declaration is meaningless, as he caveated it to say that a third term is “not something I’m contemplating”. However, his decision to even raise the subject prompted surprise in Westminster last night.
Mr Cameron’s remarks provoked a torrent of excited commentary, with some claiming that he had “amputated” his authority. In truth, the prime minister is far more likely to have made the judgment that voters prefer a leader who does not appear obsessed by politics to the exclusion of all else.
Though disliked by many in his own ranks, even his detractors accept that he is an advantage electorally to them, securing approval figures that have consistently been ahead of his party.
In 2004, Labour's Tony Blair ruled out a fourth term, but once elected, would not give a departure time that would have allowed Gordon Brown to bed down as leader before that election – a move that provoked years of fraught division within Labour.
In his interview, Mr Cameron said: “I’m standing for a full second term. I’m not saying all prime ministers necessarily definitely go mad, or even go mad at the same rate, but I feel I’ve got more to bring to this job.
“I think the job is half done – the economy’s turned round, the deficit’s half down, I want to finish the job. I didn’t just come to do this to deal with the debts and the mess, I want to go on with the education reforms and the welfare reforms.”
Mr Cameron’s hold on leadership could come under threat anyway if he fails to win a majority in six weeks’ time, or if he fails to secure a renegotiation of the UK’s European Union membership.
