British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed former PM David Cameron to take over the UK's foreign policy dossier during a cabinet reshuffle on Monday, Sunak's first government shakeup since entering office in October 2022. He also sacked controversial interior minister Suella Braverman, replacing her with foreign minister James Cleverly.
Britain's former premier David Cameron was named the country's new foreign secretary on Monday in a surprise appointment by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he reshuffled his top team.
It was the latest reset for a prime minister whose party has trailed the main Labour opposition by double-digit margins throughout his time in power and is widely tipped to lose the next election slated for sometime next year.
Cameron's return to government suggests Sunak wants to bring in more centrist, experienced hands rather than appease the right flank of his party that supported Braverman. His unexpected return to British politics comes after he spent the last seven years writing his memoirs and pursuing business interests, including in Greensill Capital, a finance firm that later collapsed.
Cameron will be made a life peer in the House of Lords, Britain's unelected upper chamber of parliament, making him eligible to sit in government.
In a statement released shortly after his new role was announced, Cameron said Britain was “facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East”.
“While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience – as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six – will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges," he said.
It is rare for a non-lawmaker to take a senior government post, and it has been decades since a former prime minister held a cabinet job. The move also marks the return to government of a leader brought down by Britain's decision to leave the European Union – Cameron called the 2016 Brexit referendum, confident the country would vote to stay in the bloc.
He resigned the day after voters opted to leave.
Cameron's foreign policy legacy is mixed. As prime minister, he backed the NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011 that toppled Muammar Gaddafi but deepened that country's chaos. In 2013, he tried and failed to gain parliamentary backing for UK air strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria. He also announced a short-lived “golden era” in UK-China relations shortly before that relationship soured.
Braverman out
Sunak had come under growing pressure to axe interior minister Braverman, an outspoken right-winger, after critics accused her of heightening tensions during weeks of contentious pro-Palestinian demonstrations and counter-protests in Britain.
Following her dismissal, Braverman said "it has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary".
"I will have more to say in due course," she added.
Braverman was replaced by erstwhile foreign minister James Cleverly.
Braverman had stoked controversy throughout her tenure, taking a hardline stance on immigration in particular and regularly wading into so-called culture wars issues which are seen as dividing the electorate.
The right-winger attacked her critics as liberal "tofu-eating wokerati" while saying shortly after she was appointed that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was her "dream" and "obsession".
But her position became increasingly untenable after she last week wrote an explosive newspaper article, apparently without Sunak's approval, accusing police of bias towards left-wing causes. It was blamed for stoking tensions ahead of a weekend of protests over Israel's war in Gaza, which coincided with Armistice Day events, and prompted calls for her to be sacked.
The firing comes as the ruling Conservatives confirmed a major reshuffle of Sunak's top ministers was under way, his first since becoming the country's leader on October 25, 2022.
"Here we go," the party said on X, formerly Twitter.
"Today @RishiSunak strengthens his team in government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future. Stay tuned for the latest."
Sunak made additional changes to the government throughout the day, naming Victoria Atkins as the new health secretary and moving her predecessor, Steve Barclay, to the environment portfolio.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
