'I was the future once': David Cameron bows out as PM

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David Cameron bowed out today with the rueful admission: “I was the future once.”

The man who lost his Government on the EU referendum gamble ended his final Prime Minister’s Questions with an ironic echo of a jibe he threw across the Dispatch Box at war-weakened Tony Blair as his leadership began in 2005.

Mr Cameron also closed his six-year run in the weekly “show” with a serious warning to his successor Theresa May not to let relations with the European Union drift too far apart.

In an emotional yet witty swansong, he paid heartfelt tribute to “my amazing wife Samantha and my lovely children”, who were watching from the public gallery.

David Cameron shares a smile with his successor Theresa May

He admitted that he would even “miss the barbs from the opposition ... and the roar of the crowd”.

He left the packed House of Commons laughing with a string of jokes, many of them aimed at Labour opponent Jeremy Corbyn.

Ribbing Labour that the Tories were having their second female premier, he said: “Pretty soon it will be two-nil — and not a pink bus in sight.”

The Commons was packed to overflowing as MPs crammed into its gangways and bunched together on stairs to cheer the former Tory leader who achieved, as Peter Lilley declared, an unmatched “mastery” of the weekly sessions — yet who lost everything after the Brexit vote.

Mr Cameron’s wife and his young children Nancy, Arthur and Florence looked on proudly as a huge cheer erupted when Mr Cameron walked to the Dispatch Box for the last time as Prime Minister.

Afterwards he was due to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace to resign formally. Mrs May was expected to enter No 10 as PM at about 5.30pm.

Mr Cameron told MPs: “People come here with huge passion for the things they care about. That is something we should be proud of and keep at it.

“In the end the public service and the national interest are what it’s all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said, ‘I was the future once’.”

But Mr Cameron also turned deadly serious as he encouraged Mrs May to seek a new deal with the European Union that keeps Britain as “close” to that institution as possible.

“My advice to my successor, who is a brilliant negotiator, is that we should try to be as close to the European Union as we can be, for the benefits of trade, co-operation and on security,” he said.

“The Channel will not get any wider once we leave the European Union and that is the relationship that we should seek. That would be good for the United Kingdom.”

Mr Corbyn joked: “I would also like you to pass on my thanks to your mum for her advice about ties and suits and songs.

“It’s extremely kind of her and I’d be grateful if you could pass that on to her personally. I’m reflecting on the lesson she offered.”

Out the door: David Cameron leaves Number 10 on his final day as PM
Jeremy Selwyn

He suggested that Mr Cameron might “slip seamlessly into the vacancy created this morning on Strictly by Len Goodman’s departure”.

Mr Cameron laughed that off and put to rest “the rumour that I somehow don’t love Larry”.

He held up a photograph of himself with the No 10 cat, saying: “Sadly, I can’t take Larry with me. He belongs to the house and the staff love him very much, as do I.”

Mr Cameron, 49, held a party for 30 of his supporters and his family at No 10 last night.

The Evening Standard had a peek into the office in the Palace of Westminster where he will start his new life as a backbench MP and discovered that it boasts a medieval-style stone staircase, oak panelling and painted ceilings.

Staff were sprucing up the hastily emptied suite in St Stephen’s Tower for its new occupant, cleaning a stain from the green carpet, after four Tory MPs were kicked out to make way for him.

Crates with Mr Cameron’s name on were stacked outside, while the names of three of his key staff were written on notes attached to some of the desks.

The suite, which is 20ft wide and 24ft long, has commanding views of Westminster Abbey and the ancient Jewel House — part of the original Royal Palace.

Until yesterday it was home to at least four Welsh MPs who, colleagues say, were given 24 hours’ notice to move out.

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