LONDON (AP) – It’s often said that David Cameron is a lucky politician who has seemed to coast through politics on instinct and charm during a career that has culminated in six years as British prime minister. But now his luck may be running out.
In calling a referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union, Cameron has made a gamble that could end his career – and take his country out of an international alliance it joined more than 40 years ago.
It would be a rare but fateful miscalculation for a politician who has a reputation for thriving under pressure and astutely judging political risks.
“I think he’s actually been pretty stunned by the strength of the ‘leave’ cause,” said Cameron biographer James Hanning. “The golden rule is, never hold a referendum unless you’re confident of winning it, and I think he thought that the moderate voices would prevail by some distance. But that’s not the way the polls are suggesting it’s going to go.”
The referendum campaign has been unexpectedly bitter and divisive, and was brought to a shocked halt when Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death in the street last week by a man witnesses heard yell “Britain first.”