The 49-year-old said his replacement had “got off to a cracking start”.
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He is succeeded by former Home Secretary Theresa May and will remain as Member of Parliament for Witney in Oxfordshire.
“I thought at the time that in fact he would become a sort of backseat driver, which he would not want to be, or an absentee MP like Gordon Brown”.
My announcement today is not about grammar schools.
Mr Cameron surprised Westminster by resigning with immediate effect as an MP last night, saying he decided over the summer that he could not remain as a backbencher without becoming a “distraction” for the Government and pointed out he holds his “own views” on certain issues. “That’s really the point”.
“In my view, the circumstances of my resignation as a prime minister and the realities of modern politics make it very hard to continue. without the risk of becoming a diversion”, Cameron said in a statement.
Former Prime Minister of Britain David Cameron is quitting politics as he steps down as a member of the British Parliament.
A by-election will now be held in his Oxfordshire constituency of Witney, where he piled up a majority of 25,000 previous year with more than 60 per cent of the vote.
In his statement, Cameron notes that he hopes to continue to “contribute in terms of public service and of course contribute to this country that I love so much”.
Cameron, who as leader of the Opposition said his faith came and went “like the London radio station Magic FM in the Chilterns”, has by all accounts grown in faith during his premiership.
People would also remember his leadership and his government for creating a stronger economy and for important social reforms such as gay marriage, he said.
She pledged to continue with his “one-nation government” approach.
His former finance minister and right hand man George Osborne, who was excluded from the cabinet by May, called it a “sad day” on Twitter.
“I want to wish him all the best for the future”. He said there might be “many good things” in the proposed education reforms, Cameron said.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that that will overshadow every other feature of his premiership”.
There was an ambivalent reaction from Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who praised Mr Cameron for forming a coalition government with his party between 2010 and 2015 but said his legacy would be Brexit, to the “huge detriment of future generations”.
He pressed ahead with his pledge to hold a referendum on Britains’s European Union membership – campaigning hard for a Remain vote and warning of the economic and security consequences of Brexit.
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Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, said: “While he may have chose to walk away the problems his austerity has created for the people of this country remain”.
