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Watch: Ex-PM Cameron walks into No 10
“Cameron is the biggest upgrade in modern political history.”
So texts a former cabinet minister, delighted to see the return of the now Lord Cameron as foreign secretary.
Yes, you read that sentence right: Lord Cameron, foreign secretary.
Politics, flippin’ heck.
The accidental instigator of the biggest single moment in British foreign policy in a generation – Brexit – is now the face of British foreign policy, under a Brexit-supporting prime minister.
Accidental, you’ll recall, because he called the EU referendum hopeful his argument for Remain would triumph. It didn’t, and he was a goner. Or at least he was until today.
So what’s going on here?
This appointment allows the prime minister to argue he is bringing the Conservative family back together.
David Cameron alluded to this, writing on X that he wants to “be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the general election is held.”
And what a twist.
The young, ambitious, then-unknown backbencher who came out for Brexit and defied the then-prime minister is now the prime minister himself, and appoints David Cameron to his cabinet.
Lord Cameron, as we will become used to calling him, is well-connected on the international stage, which comes in handy when you’re an incoming foreign secretary.
And he’ll have useful words of advice about winning general elections too.
But he comes with baggage: what he has been up since leaving politics. Here’s an article I wrote two and a half years ago about the Greensill affair, for a start.
And what do those post-Brexit referendum Conservatives – many elected in 2019 – make of David Cameron’s return?
‘Strategic blunder’
For a good number, not a lot. The Remain-campaigning, austerity-delivering former premier is a rather different Conservative from many of them.
And Labour folk aren’t impressed either.
“Just because something is a marmalade dropper, doesn’t make it a good idea,” says one figure on today’s big surprise.
They argue it is a “big strategic blunder to kill off the change message they were trying to land by bringing back the Tory PM who started 13 years of failure.”
And yes, just a month or so ago, Rishi Sunak was portraying himself as the change candidate – and in so doing defining himself against people like….David Cameron.
Rwanda ruling looms
And here’s a question: what next for Suella Braverman, the now former home secretary?
There are those loyal to her who say this is far from the last we will hear from her.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will announce whether the government’s Rwanda migration plan can happen – sending some people who’ve arrived in the UK to east Africa.
If, as many in government expect, ministers lose and the Supreme Court says no, expect to see Mrs Braverman argue that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It’ll be like Brexit 2.0” is how one senior figure described it to me – with the same capacity to divide the Conservative Party.
Mrs Braverman would love to lead the Tories one day.
Oh, and allies of the former home secretary are gathering for a meeting in Parliament this afternoon.
Remember, this is a reshuffle still under way. All the indications are that it has breadth as well as depth – with changes at every rank within government.
A big day.
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