2016 UK Brexit Purge

The 2016 UK Brexit Purge, simply referred to as the Brexit Purge, was a major cabinet reshuffle initiated by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, whom, in response to the success of the Remain vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, sacked a number of his cabinet members deemed to be pro-Leave, and replacing them with pro-Remain Conservative MPs, in an effort to, as described by BBC journalist, Anna Watson, "settle the Brexit split once and for all", whilst also achieving complete political unity among his cabinet members.

In the end, out of the thirty total members of the Cameron administration, including the Prime Minister himself, six of them, namely House of Commons leader, Chris Grayling, Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove, Minister of State for Employment, Priti Patel, and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, were all sacked from their cabinet posts, and were promptly replaced by pro-Remain MPs.

Due to the significance and the impact of the cabinet reshuffle, which would precede the subsequent 2016 United Kingdom political crisis, it has often been compared to the infamous "purge of the wets" in the 1980s by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom purged several members of her cabinet, known as "wets", due to their moderate opposition to Thatcher's hard-line policies.