An article in the issue of The Spectator published on 16 April stated that David Cameron had ‘asked a historian friend to find out which Tory leaders have quit at a time of their own choosing and not one determined by the electorate, their party or their health’. Alistair Lexden provided the answer to the Prime Minister’s question in a letter published in the next issue of the magazine on 23 April.
Sir: David Cameron’s ‘historian friend’ who has been asked to establish how many Tory leaders have quit entirely of their own volition will not have a time-consuming task (‘Cameron’s plan for a graceful exit all hinges on the referendum’, 16 April). There are just three. In May 1834 the Duke of Wellington, then leader in opposition, passed the baton amicably to Sir Robert Peel, convinced that the next Tory premier should be in the Commons. The great Lord Salisbury departed serenely with his fame at its height in July 1902 at the age of 72, determined to avoid the mistake made by some of his predecessors who, in his words, stayed after ‘their intellects had evaporated’. The third is the well-known case of Stanley Baldwin in May 1937. He said, ‘I go of my own choice, in my own time, and on the top of my form’. Will David Cameron be able to say the same when he departs?
Alistair Lexden
Official Conservative Party historian
House of Lords