David Cameron’s resignation is a perfectly timed sabotage by an embittered ex-leader

DAVID Cameron flounced out of Parliament yesterday in a fit of pique over Theresa May.

His hissy fit will trigger an unnecessary by-election in his Oxfordshire seat of Witney.

And it will confirm the opinion of many Tories inside and outside Westminster about his poor judgement.

Mr Cameron’s timing, just as his successor is going into ­battle over grammar schools, was no “coincidence”.

It seems unlikely he has landed a plum City job. That would be too blatant.

This looked like sabotage by a bitter ex-PM whose successor is trashing his most cherished policies — and winning applause for her audacity.

It was the performance of a man who has seen his most favoured apostle, chosen successor George Osborne, brutally kicked out of power.

A man who had to swallow the sight of detested fellow Tories Liam Fox and David Davis restored to Cabinet while his nemesis Boris Johnson parachuted in as Foreign Secretary. It was too much for Mr Cameron to bear.

Tragically, his act of defiance will be futile.

Yes, Mrs May is taking bold risks. But they are calculated risks and she is already the most popular politician in the land with an approval rating “Call me Dave” can only dream about.

He will not wreck the PM’s plan to re-establish the grammar school system. It is as popular among grassroots Tories, and even Labour voters, as she is. There will be no calls to “bring back Cameron”, as there were for his hero Tony Blair. But it is a sad way to see a former PM go.

As a loyal backbencher with six years in Downing Street under his belt, he might have done much to put a shine on his lacklustre legacy.

He could have followed the example of John Major who has rallied to the Government’s side with statesmanlike interventions.

Now Mr Cameron will be judged on his record as Tory leader which, despite some substantial successes, can only be regarded as disappointing.

It began so well when he beat Mr Davis with such easy relish 11 years ago to become Leader of HM Opposition.

But it was flawed from the outset by the calculated ­madness of snubbing Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

The Iron Lady, the three-term winner who turned strike-plagued Britain from “Sick Man of Europe” into the world’s fifth largest economy, was ruthlessly painted out of the picture. Instead, he aped grinning charlatan Blair.

Embarrassingly, he and Osborne even described themselves as “heirs to Blair”.

So all the signposts pointing to real Tory values — low taxes, strong government, strong defence — were dismantled. Instead, the Tories backed dodgy claims of devastating climate change.

Mr Cameron hugged huskies in the Arctic, stuck toy windmills on his roof and built real windmills on our hillsides at a cost to householders of untold billions in soaring energy bills.

He and Osborne ruled out tax cuts as “unaffordable” while promising to match grandiose Labour borrowing.

Osborne then spent years as Chancellor trying to rein it back.

Inevitably, the Tories failed to beat Gordon Brown, the most unpopular PM ever, and were forced into coalition with the feeble Lib Dems.

Welfare cuts, which have proved universally popular, had to wait five more years until the Tories scraped back into government in their own right.

Even against useless Ed Miliband, it was a grudging victory from voters who had not forgiven Tories for gay marriage.

But for the hand-wringing Lib Dems, Britain could have eliminated the deficit and been fit to cope with anything Brussels threw at us post-Brexit.

Which brings us to the biggest unforced error of David Cameron’s time at Number Ten.

It was not his decision to give Britain an In/Out vote. It was his stubborn refusal to imagine defeat until too late.

He failed to understand the seething hostility of ordinary Brits over mass immigration.

He believed in the Grand European Project and blithely presumed victory. There was no need to upset our EU friends by negotiating too hard.

But Mr Cameron totally misread the most momentous event in modern history. He will forever be known as The Man Who Took Britain Out.

And thank goodness for that!