David Cameron returns to government
In a shock cabinet re-shuffle on Monday, ex-Prime Minister David Cameron returned to office as foreign secretary, after Suella Braverman was sacked.
James Cleverly, previously foreign secretary, has been moved to replace Braverman as home secretary, while Jeremy Hunt remains chanellor.
The decision came after weeks of turmoil and calls for Braverman to be removed from her position after stoking division within the party, as well as an array of controversial remarks and policies. Her time in office culminated in the writing of an unapproved letter to the Times accusing the Metropolitan Police of bias towards supporting left-wing protests, which she called “hate marches”, a comment directly aimed at the recent wide-scale movements in solidarity with Palestine.
The decision is also seen as a latch-ditch attempt to close the gap with Labour ahead of an election. The Conservatives are currently trailing by more than 20 points.
While the core of his Prime Ministerial legacy has been remembered for the EU referendum, Cameron himself was on the side of ‘remain’. His return to a party that has grown over-whelmingly pro-Brexit, and moved even further right than his more centre-right leaning, poses questions around how the Conservative party may change – will it be more unified, a more familiar conservativism as under his leadership, or will the party fracture further?
His time as prime minister was filled with a spattering of successes – but his foreign policy receipts are once again under intense scrutiny. As PM, his support for military action in Libya brought down Gaddafi, but failed to foresee the vacuum the state would be left in. His policies intended to tighten relations with China have been all but abandoned, and he lost a vote on whether or not to bomb Syrian forces after Assad’s government utilised chemical weapons against its own people in 2013. However, this Commons decision has since been heavily critcised, and Cameron did support UK military action at the time.
Perhaps a more interesting and informative – not to say unbiased – article to write at this time would be a reflection on just what Cameron’s foreign policy decisions were whilst in office…
Still, it’s interesting to see how bias towards Cameron has changed since his time in office, as right-wing tabloids have become overwhelmingly further right and are therefore more critical of his return. Left-wing outlets, however, see his return of a more centre-right Tory as a welcome change to rebalance the front-bench and pull it back from reaching far-right extremes.
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