Why Rishi Sunak brought David Cameron back in

Politics has few genuine surprises now — so much is leaked that possibility becomes likelihood, which becomes rumor and then blossoms into fact. But on Nov. 13, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak caught the media genuinely off-guard with his appointment of a former premier as his new foreign secretary.

Viewers watched in real time as two SUVs drew up in Downing Street. Kay Burley, Sky News anchor, described what she was seeing: “the security detail just opening the door for …  David Cameron?!”

There he was, the man who had been prime minister from 2010 to 2016, recalled to the colors. The news quickly spilled out: As a major part of the changes to the Cabinet, Cameron would be appointed to the House of Lords and would take over the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

While an American audience can only look to William Howard Taft’s post–White House tenure as chief justice on the Supreme Court, in Britain it is not unknown for former prime ministers to serve in high office under their successors. No fewer than five did so in the 20th century, though these were usually the part of the complex management of coalitions between political parties. Cameron’s most obvious model, however, is Sir Alec Douglas-Home: The courteous and dutiful Scottish aristocrat was a slightly unexpected prime minister in 1963-64, but happily and successfully served as foreign secretary from 1970 to 1974 under Edward Heath.

Sunak certainly captured headlines with the appointment. But why has he done it? Cameron’s reputation, after all, bears some serious blemishes. He initiated the 2016 Brexit referendum as a way of drawing a line under bitter debate within the Conservative Party, but he and his fellow Remainers lost, and the pro-EU establishment watched impotently as the populist hordes stormed the battlements.

In 2021, Cameron was caught up in a lobbying scandal. Three years before, he had become a highly paid adviser to Greensill Capital, a supply chain finance company, and during the COVID-19 pandemic he had used his government contacts to press the firm’s case for financial assistance. Three separate inquiries found that Cameron had not broken any regulations, but there was an underlying question about whether those regulations were sufficiently robust.

Despite these facts, many in Westminster understood instinctively why Sunak had made the bold move of recruiting Cameron. No matter how badly their premierships end, former prime ministers have a residual stardust that other politicians find hypnotic. Sunak may have reached the top job himself, but he did so by unopposed acclamation to the vacant leadership of the Conservative Party. Cameron defeated three substantial rivals to lead his party in 2005, took power after the 2010 general election and won an increased majority in 2015 (the year Sunak first entered Parliament).

There are more hard-headed considerations at work. Foreign policy consumes a greater proportion of a prime minister’s time than most voters realize, and as head of government you cannot simply skip the dull parts. The prime minister has a national security adviser, currently Sir Tim Barrow, and a dedicated private secretary for foreign affairs in his outer office, and receives a weekly survey of intelligence, known as the “Red Book,” from the Joint Intelligence Committee. Every week the king holds an audience with the prime minister, which is absolutely private, and any prime minister will know he must be on top of foreign affairs as well as every other issue for that discussion. This was Cameron’s life for six years, and the habits will remain even if the data are new.

Relations with international leaders and other foreign ministers are important too. Most of the cast has changed since Cameron left office in 2016, but world leaders Justin Trudeau, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Narendra Modi, Viktor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Paul Kagame will all be familiar — as will Vladimir Putin. In particular, Cameron knows Xi Jinping, having hosted the Chinese president in 2015 at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, and for a photo opportunity in a local pub.

Fundamentally, Cameron is good with people. He has an easy patrician charm and self-assurance, which impressed former President Obama and intermittently won over former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Essentially he is a grown-up in the room, and — this is often underestimated — is exceptionally able; he was highly regarded by his tutors at Oxford and his premiership indicated imagination and an ability to think counterintuitively. As a face-to-face practitioner of foreign policy and diplomacy, he promises a great deal.

But one had to be realistic. Cameron may bring a depth and rigor to U.K. foreign policy — he created the National Security Council in 2010, which Sunak has largely neglected — but his influence on the government’s long-term future is likely to be limited. An election is expected sometime in 2024, probably in the autumn, and it will not be won or lost on the stewardship of foreign affairs.

Sunak may seek to involve Cameron more widely in domestic and electoral politics as a symbol of the moderate, centrist tendency within the Conservative Party. In particular, some hope he may be able to prevent inroads into the Tory heartlands by the Liberal Democrats, with whom he governed in coalition from 2010 to 2015. Cameron remains a controversial figure, however, and Sunak does not easily or comfortably share the limelight as prime minister.

The indications are still that the current government will face electoral defeat within the next 12 months. The presence in the Cabinet of Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton is unlikely to have a major effect on that overall trajectory. What it may do, with a fair wind, is give Britain a little more charm and clout on the world stage at a time of exceptional and interlocking crisis. That may not be the gamechanger for which Sunak is hoping, but, given the current fortunes of the British government, the philosophy of incremental gains should not be underestimated.

Eliot Wilson is a freelance writer on politics and international affairs. He was senior official in the U.K. House of Commons from 2005 to 2016, including serving as a clerk of the Defence Committee and secretary of the U.K. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.