November 13, 2023 - 11:25am
David Cameron is back in town. In a move that seemingly came from nowhere, Rishi Sunak has brought his predecessor four times removed back to the top table of government. It’s a big call, both in terms of the hierarchy of government and the trajectory of the Conservative Party.
A prime minister returning to office is not unprecedented — but it is rare. Alec Douglas-Home also took up the position of Foreign Secretary a few years after No. 10. The same is true of having a major minister in the Lords, with the last one being Lord Carrington, who served under Margaret Thatcher until falling on his sword over the Falklands.
Bringing back a former PM as foreign secretary could have real benefits for Sunak. He is known around the world, and foreign leaders understand his political positions already. His network is as broad as anyone’s, his calls likely to be answered. Appointing from outside the Commons generally gives a PM the option to add broader talents than those in the parliamentary party.
Yet it’s also partly a sign of the awkwardness of Sunak’s position. The Tory benches are not ripe with talent, with most ministerial-level players either already in place or having served their usefulness already. Equally, it avoids any nod being seen as kingmaking for the next leadership election, or the risk of someone flouncing out to stake their pitch. Cameron’s political ambitions have already been sated.
The move could also have another advantage for Sunak — bringing back some of the old 2010 sparkle. It’s easy to forget what Cameron achieved then, returning the Tories from the electoral wilderness.
Both the 2010 and 2015 elections were impressive feats for the Tory Party. Cameron brought onside the sort of suburban voters the party needed, wrestled East Anglia and the South West from the Lib Dems, and brought in a new generation of Tory voters. These are battles Sunak will have to refight in order to survive the next election. Perhaps he hopes Cameron’s insight and image will help with it.
Harking back to the 2010s has its costs, though. Cameron’s foreign policy was defined by his reconciliation with China and dialogue with Vladimir Putin. Both positions now feel naive, as do some of Cameron’s post-PM jobs.
Equally, Cameron’s political reputation has suffered since he left office. Brexit alienated many of the voters first drawn to him, while others are suspicious of the liberalism of the Cameroon period. It’s hard to see how this sits within a broader strategy considering where the votes, and the Tories, are now.
There are few roads forward for the Conservatives, then, and many back. The Government is grasping at whatever it can, both in terms of policy and optics. More than anything, this seems like a “Why not?” moment. Sunak has little to lose and few options left. Bringing back the leader who was there when he first came to Parliament might just be a comforting idea for someone whose government and party seem to be running out of time.
John Oxley is a corporate strategist and political commentator. His Substack is Joxley Writes.
Mr_John_Oxley
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SubscribeThis is desperate stuff.
I’m just waiting for Sunak to bring back Major. And if he can find a posse with spades, I suspect Thatcher is on the cards.
Originally I wanted to write something along the lines of the Tories having already looked for the answers to Britain’s woes in the Thatcherism of the 80s…Labour are looking for them in the Blairism of the 90s…Cameron’s back now – Major and Brown must be due any minute!
It’s the ghosts of British politics past. You cannot make this stuff up.
Don’t forget the blessed Theresa.
No, please no!
I suspect the problem is even deeper than we think. The Administrative State has ‘managed’ the last few Prime Ministers to their choosing, getting rid of the ‘dangerous’ and the ‘incompetent’. Working back towards a Rejoin perhaps?
As such Cameron will clearly be ‘on side’ but to the rest of us it will seem like one last stab at making the proles vote properly in accordance with the elevated views of the Elite.
I wish them no luck at all in their endeavours to subvert democracy.
Is it April 1st? It’s very clear what the Tories need, which is an actual Tory leader willing to open with both barrels on immigration, the culture war, trans nonsense and a whole raft of issues
Add energy policy and pricing to that list. And anti-car policies. And high taxes. And excessive bureaucracy and waste.
You’ll have plenty of time to completely drive your grotesque party into the ground after the historic election defeat you are about to receive.
Sunak will be on a California beach by the time the swivel eyed loons (TM) take over what is left of the Tory party and finish the job of destroying it with their culture wars nonsense.
Can’t wait!!!
One last throw of the dice as the deck-chairs are re-arranged on the Titanic. The clichés will be strong today.
What a simply splendid caption photograph UnHerd. Well done!
The archetypal SPIV in all his glory!
. . . and keeps us in the EU’s orbit indefinitely! What an insult to the Brexit-voting majority.
It’s as if the current Tory leadership had only one goal to achieve and that was the annihilation of the Conservative once and for all. It’s a complete joke of a party.
All this does is emphasize the total vacuum at the heart of the government and the conservative party. They believe nothing. They stand for nothing. So all they can do is follow the herd.
They are completely asleep, totally unconscious yet at the wheel of this country. No wonder we are headed for the rocks.
2010 was a coalition government. 2015 was dominated by Brexit and devolution, both handled catastrophicallyby Cameron. His ‘swivel eyed loons ,’ are now Sunak’s ‘far right extremist thugs’. Cameron showed no capacity in his foreign affairs, from Libya to dealing with th EU, and should never have resigned in 2016, a cowardly step. He tried to buy off the Scots Nats in ’15, giving them far too much autonomy. An odd choice.
An odd choice… unless you are building a team to Rejoin the EU in some manner?
PMQ on Wednesday will be full of questions about Greensill. How long before Cameron has to resign again?
Now that would be funny!
Presumably ‘they’ think Greensill is forgotten?
Thank you for reminding us.
Who is pulling the strings? Really, can we please identify the puppet master?
Have Cameron’s China connections made him a popular choice for the anti-conservative Conservatives?
Somebody buy a lettuce!
Let’s remember how Sunak came to power: he’s the establishment candidate, enthroned after the party’s choice (Truss) was defenestrated.
He’s not trying to win election. He’s just trying to avoid a complete catastrophe on his watch.
He’ll tick off a few progressive boxes along the way (like adding tobacco to the war on drugs), but mostly he’s focused on a smooth transfer of power from Continuity New Labour back to New Labour.
Cameron is perfect for this.
In terms of options…couldn’t Sunak do some of the things that the Tory party’s current electoral coalition, or what’s left of it, wants? Cut legal migration, say? That doesn’t cost any taxes. It might decrease projected revenue, but that is a problem for post-GE.
Sunak obviously doesn’t want to be radical around the ECHR, but he was happy enough with Raab’s domestic disapplication of the HRA. A relatively straightforward way of moving in that direction would be to collate all the statutes that relate to each of the provisions of the ECHR and publish an explanatory document on how these laws *already acheive the protection of rights encapsulated by the ECHR* and then repeal the HRA in a one line Bill. It wouldn’t change a great deal in practice but it would be a down payment on a more muscular approach to the ECHR post-GE.
Rather than just cutting off options around wind (which is useless, I agree) get some money into SMRs. Actually buy some. They will be overpriced and late but that’s school fees. The ones after that will be much cheaper having paid the fes. Sunak can pay for this buy ceasing the idiotic sale of QE bonds into the market at a loss.
I don’t know what he can do on housing given the internal Tory disputes on this…but fixing housing and energy really ought to be the priorities of the government.
And for goodness sake implement the regulatory changes in recommended by IDS et al (I think it was called TiGRR or some other silly acronym?). Again, doesn’t cost revenue.
Anyway, there are lots of ideas, doubtless many better than these. But Sunak doesn’t have the balls for it. So the only options are of the no-testicles-policy type we saw in the King’s Speech. And this generation of Tories will be flushed down the toilet of history as a result, there to reside with the creatures with no balls.
This could almost be a Labour Government. The Home Secretary may be only Colfe’s, but he is still that, and the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary are Winchester, Charterhouse and Eton. Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt were both Head Boy. They and David Cameron all read PPE at Oxford. Sunak is a Brahmin who is richer than the King, to whom Hunt and Cameron are both related. Are they related to each other? Based on the few Labour Governments that there have ever been, only Sunak’s and James Cleverly’s skin colours preclude this from being one in all but name.
The Progressive New Order constructed by Blair and the EU has had 30 years to embed itself into mainly permanent structures in the UK State. Cameron and May bowed the knee to this leftist/EU Revolution in law media culture adminstration and the weaker of parliamentary politics. The Fool Boris with his kamikaze surrender to the Lockdown Catastrophists – killed off any hope of Resistance and renewal. It is – incredibly – not possible to enact any policies hostile to the core credos of the Progressive Left (Net Zero/Diversity/Equality/Multiculturalism/Open Border). Suella and her few powerless rebel cohorts have lived in a Cage. If the Rwanda plan – like every core promise made to the electorate since 2019 – is suffocated (this time by the judiciary,) we must stop pretending we exist in a true democratic system. Conservatism is extinct and is almost a proscribed ideology. Small wonder there are more Fake than real Tories in the self immolating Party. These are fateful days.
Far from being “impressive feats” the 2010 election wasn’t won by the Tories, it needed LibDem support, and the 2015 election was only won because Cameron promised a Referendum, which he duly lost and ran away when he did.
The apple rarely falls far from the tree.
Struggling for talent somewhat aren’t they. What happens when a Party spends a number of years promoting the untalented and inexperienced because they will go along with twaddle.
The Prime Minister of the war in Libya is now Foreign Secretary. Well, I suppose he looks the part. Such are both Saint Helena and Lowland Scotland that I must have an English ancestor somewhere along the line, but I can say no more than that. Yet one of Jeremy Corbyn’s keenest supporters once told me that, “When I’m Prime Minister, I want you as Foreign Secretary, because you’re the international idea of an Englishman.” “You would have to find me a seat,” I played along. In deadly earnest, the reply came back that, “There are two Houses of Parliament.”
The Prime Minister of the war in Libya is now Foreign Secretary. Well, I suppose he looks the part. Such are both Saint Helena and Lowland Scotland that I must have an English ancestor somewhere along the line, but I can say no more than that. Yet one of Jeremy Corbyn’s keenest supporters once told me that, “When I’m Prime Minister, I want you as Foreign Secretary, because you’re the international idea of an Englishman.” “You would have to find me a seat,” I played along. In deadly earnest, the reply came back that, “There are two Houses of Parliament.”
Someone must have thought it a good idea
I guess it will be those Tory strategists, dazzled by Labour’s lead in the opinion polls, who have decided to give the government a New Labour style makeover – on the assumption that this must be what the people really want. In any case, the reshuffle is a blatant slap in the face for actual conservatives (now dismissively labelled The Tory Right).
‘Someone thought GOD was a good idea.
It wasn’t.
” … what Cameron achieved then, returning the Tories from the electoral wilderness.” Cameron failed to win a majority after Brown led Britain into the worst recession since WWII and interest rates in panic were slashed to zero. He then only won a majority in 2015 because he promised the Brexit referendum, which he lost after assuming that the EU would throw him some crumbs.
Cameron’s naivity over China is mentioned but not the link between him and Braverman. Cameron supported the overthrow of Ghaddafi, which led to the surge in people crossing the Med by boat.
David ‘ I’ll remove lobbyists ‘ Cameron .. who then went overboard lobbying his old colleagues…
Sunak’s a genius. He’s distracted everyone from the Palestine ceasefire rebellion in Labour and annoyed the Braverman supporters. It’s as if he’s been instructed to make Starmer’s ascendance to no 10 easier. At least I can’t think of a better way.
Starmer can’t be very bright. Who in their right mind would volunteer to inherit this mess? He can’t begin to solve our problems in time to win the following GE.
Say what you like about Cameron, he was the best Commons performer in a generation. He demolished the Opposition as both LoTo and PM.
Not true. Gove for one is far better. Though I have to admit the bar’s pretty low these days.
Bit wasted in the Lords then
Apart from his disastrous desperate attempt to save the party by an unlawful referendum, he wasn’t all bad. Surely, given who we’ve had since then, a little forgiveness is in order?
Just how can legislation which went through Parliament with huge majorities be “unlawful” ?
Essentially all major parties voted for it – so whatever flaws it may have had, the best and brightest minds in the Houses of Common and Lords checked it over at length and approved it. A bit late to be complaining now that they didn’t do their homework.
There is no forgiveness possible for a man who promised to carry out the decision of the refererendum before the vote and quit the moment the vote went against his view. Nor for his involvement with Greensill Capital. Impossible to trust such a man.
Seconded, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE in fact.