The worst Prime Minister vs the worst mistake by a Prime Minister

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 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. ***…