25th June 2026
This is a short post occasioned by this piece in the Guardian ranking the worst Prime Ministers we have had since 2016.
The worst at being Prime Minister was, of course, Elizabeth Truss. But she is second. And that is actually, counter-intuitively, the correct placing.
As it is possible to have been the worst Prime Minister since 2016 without being the worst at being Prime Minister.
For David Cameron made the worst mistake as Prime Minister – of risking the future of the United Kingdom on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and losing. In other words, of having a needless Brexit referendum which the government did not enough to win and which the government made no preparations for if it lost.
And as such, Cameron’s one big mistake is worse than Truss’s calamitous few weeks.
That the worst politician of the six – that is, the person whose approach to politics was the most cynical – should only be the third worst on the list is indicative of just how bad the top two were.
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Arguably Cameron made the worst mistake twice of risking the future of the United Kingdom on one turn of pitch-and-toss. The first time was the Scottish independence referendum where he set no minimum on the majority required. He didn’t learn from the experience and chanced again to luck for the Brexit referendum.
We’ll never be sure what would have happened if he had not had the referendum, but I doubt the issue would have gone away quietly, and someone new may have made the same decision before the end of the year.
Perhaps Cameron’s biggest failure was allowing the situation to develop to the point where a decision was needed. (I’m not sure if that counts as being the worst PM or the worst at being PM.)
But he also did not prepare for what would happen in the event of leave – indeed he banned the civil service from making any plans, so I am afraid he is culpable despite your defence!