The return of David Cameron; a sign of hope or an admittance of defeat for Sunak?
Photo Courtesy: ‘UK Prime Minister’
In his latest cabinet reshuffle, Rishi Sunak was able to give the boot to one of the last looming figures of Boris Johnson’s reign - Suella Braverman - designing a cabinet that would embody a different era of the Conservative Party. The shock promotion of David Cameron, coupled with Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor, can only mean that this is Sunak’s last ditch attempt to solve the Tory identity crisis - by returning to the Conservative Party of the early 2010s. That Conservative party embodied centre-right, one-nation ideology and was yet to be torn apart by factionalism. That party also happened to win two elections, and so the question is: will this return to the past be enough to stop the seemingly impending electoral annihilation of the Tories?
David Cameron’s appointment could be regarded as a wise move. Predating the scandal mired era of Johnson, he was at the helm for longer than the last 3 Prime Minister’s combined. The job of foreign secretary requires someone above party politics who can represent not just the interests of the current government but of the country, and so a former Prime Minister makes for a better statesman than most fledgling back benchers. Sunak has seen that the tide has turned against him in the Red Wall, with some pollsters predicting he will face a complete and total wipeout, and so is focusing on clutching to the Tory heartlands. But while the return of Cameron may calm some of the doubts in safe Tory seats, representing a safe pair of hands and a return to a more traditional and broadchurch Conservative party, the move could just as easily backfire against the government.
Cameron’s foreign policy record is a controversial one; from being accused of cosying up to China, to going on a camping trip with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, to instigating the very event that sent British politics - foreign and domestic - into chaos. As much as the government would like us to believe that Brexit is in the past, it remains a dominating force in Britain’s foreign policy. The man negotiating our treaties and trade being the very same who resigned in disgrace because he fought against Britain leaving the EU will not please hard line Brexiteers of the Conservative Party, Not to mention the fact that the main criticism that levelled at Sunak is that he is an unelected Prime Minister, and yet he has just placed a man not even accountable to voters in a position of extreme power, and appointed him to the deeply unpopular House of Lords. For all things positive that can be said about David Cameron, the bottom line remains that he was not a popular politician, and his arguably illegitimate place in this already unpopular government will only deepen the resentment that vast swathes of this country feels towards the Conservatives.
When Conservatives MPs are campaigning for their survival, ultimately, their constituents will not care who the foreign secretary is or whether they have an anti-woke tsar, they will worry about their bills this winter and the state of the NHS. Rishi Sunak doesn’t offer them solutions for that. He doesn’t even offer that much of a united party message. With Cameron and Hunt in his team he’s recentering the Conservatives, the party of law and order, and yet at the same time is vowing to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling over the Rwanda Scheme - a move almost out of Donald Trump’s playbook.
What Cameron’s appointment really says about Sunak and his party is not that it is changed or stabilised, but rather that it has nothing in its current state to offer the country. By passing over the 350 Conservative MPs that sit in parliament for this position, Sunak is admitting that he believes none of them to be competent enough, which isn’t a shining endorsement for a group that will all be fighting hard for reelection next year. The return of David Cameron does not reveal Rishi Sunak as a political genius nor does it save the Conservatives from their fate; all it tells us is that our current government is one out of ideas and out of time.