Cameron-Campbell coalition (The More Things Change)

David Cameron and Menzies Campbell formed the Cameron–Campbell coalition, after the former was invited by to form a new government, following the resignation of Prime Minister  on 2 November 2007 following the general election on 25 October 2007. It was the first coalition government in the UK since the and was led by Cameron with Campbell as Deputy Prime Minister, composed of members of both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.

The Cabinet was made up of seventeen Conservatives and four Liberal Democrats, with eight other Conservatives and one other Liberal Democrat attending cabinet but not members. The coalition was succeeded by the Miliband–Campbell coalition after its collapse on 3 August 2009.

History
The 2007 snap election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party holding the most seats in the House of Commons, but without an overall majority. In the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement of 2 November 2007, the two parties formed a coalition government. The new Parliament met on 6 November for the swearing-in of Peers in the House of Lords and newly elected and returning Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, and the election for the Speakership of the House of Commons. The Queen's Speech on 13 November set out the government's legislative agenda. Of the 23 Liberal Democrat MPs, only two refused to support the Conservative Coalition agreement, with former leader Charles Kennedy and Manchester Withington MP John Leech both rebelling, thus depriving the coalition of its majority. The coalition, however, retained a working majority due to the of.

The Liberal Democrats had five Cabinet members including Menzies Campbell as Deputy Prime Minister. If a Liberal Democrat minister resigned or was removed from office, another member of the same party would have had to be appointed to the Cabinet. Each cabinet committee had a chair from one party and a deputy chair from the other; there was also a cabinet committee specifically overseeing the operation of the coalition. Both parties' ministers shared collective responsibility for the government's positions, although the coalition agreement detailed several issues on which the parties agreed to differ; the Liberal Democrats abstained from voting in such cases. Campbell, as Deputy Prime Minister, took Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ) when Cameron was unavailable.

While the government's front benchers sat together in the House of Commons and the two parties acted as a bloc during PMQ, the Liberal Democrat and Conservative backbenchers sat apart and each had their own whips, and the two parties competed in by-elections.

The Cameron–Campbell coalition collapsed on 3 August 2009 following the withdrawal of the Liberal Democrats from the cabinet after the Conservative Party withdrew its support of the. The Liberal Democrats subsequently formed a coalition with the Labour Party with confidence and supply from the Scottish National Party.