UK cabinet shake-up: Why Rishi Sunak brought David Cameron back

Rishi Sunak's decision to bring David Cameron back could help Team Rishi against leadership bids by potential challengers, which includes former PM Boris Johnson, and cabinet minister Michael Gove. (Photo: AP)

Rishi Sunak’s cabinet rejig made two big headlines. The first was the sacking of home secretary Suella Braverman and the second was the return of former Prime Minister David Cameron to active politics. The changes reflect Sunak’s desire to fashion the Conservative party under him as centrist, but Cameron’s inclusion is also designed to fortify him against possible challenges to the Tory leadership.

Cameron was leader of the opposition from 2005 to 2010 and Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016 after he twice led the Conservative party to victory in general elections. His return to frontline politics after seven years in the political wilderness is somewhat unprecedented with just one previous Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home returning to the cabinet as foreign secretary in 1970 after being the prime minister in early 1960s.

Cameron’s return has been described as bringing “gravitas” to the job of foreign secretary given his long stint as leader of opposition and Prime Minister. The war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East certainly makes him well-positioned for the job, given his experience and contacts. At the same time, he also brings gravitas to Team Rishi as a key lieutenant against leadership bids by potential challengers, which includes former PM Boris Johnson, and cabinet minister Michael Gove.

Tory veteran, political pundit and prolific author Michael Ashcroft observed about Cameron after he resigned as Prime Minister, “Out of office before the age of fifty, his contribution to public life may not be over yet.” So true.

The Tory trio

Political observers feel that by rehabilitating Cameron, Sunak has also managed to shore up his defence against both Johnson and Gove. The trio of Cameron, Johnson and Gove was once considered to be the most energetic and prominent face of the Conservative party. They are of the same age, were contemporaries at Oxford, and true-blue Tories right from the beginning. Then Brexit happened.

Cameron’s ouster from frontline politics, or rather his resignation as the Prime Minister in 2016, happened in the wake of the EU referendum which went in favour of Brexit. Although Cameron was against the UK leaving the EU, his call for a referendum upset his calculation as he did not expect voters to choose Brexit.

Faced with the task of helming Britain’s exit from the EU, while openly opposing Brexit, he resigned from Downing Street and made way for Theresa May who became the Prime Minister. This was the period when Cameron’s relationship with Johnson and Gove reached its nadir. He accused Johnson of deciding to back "Leave (EU)" in 2016 even though he was not a Brexiteer. The implication was that Johnson changed his position keeping his political prospect in mind, a crime not many British politicians may claim to not have indulged in.

So while Cameron became a backbencher, Johnson who had just finished his second innings as London mayor, became foreign secretary in Theresa May’s cabinet in 2016. Michael Gove, too, remained in important positions during the reigns of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and now Rishi Sunak. Cameron, however, remained sore with the Brexit rhetoric that was used by both Johnson and Gove, especially that Turkey could join the EU which would allow its nationals to swamp England and the bus campaign which proclaimed that Britain was paying the EU £350 million a week which could have instead gone to fund the NHS. In an interview to The Times in 2019, Cameron said: “Over the issue of whether or not we had a veto over Turkey (joining the EU) and over the issue of the £350 million on the bus, I think they (Johnson and Gove) left the truth at home.”

Much water has flown through the Thames since then and the issue of Brexit no longer has the same resonance, but it has not disappeared completely. Political divisions that came in its wake still remain relevant. When Johnson resigned as MP in June 2023 (he stepped down as PM in September 2022), he spoke about a witch-hunt against him to take revenge for Brexit. Since then Johnson loyalists like Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries have continued to train their guns on Sunak’s administration.

Between Johnson and Gove, it is the latter with whom Cameron shared a close bond. So the political differences over Brexit took a far heavier toll on his relationship with Gove. In fact it broke down. In his memoirs, Cameron referred to Gove as “mendacious”. So it will be interesting to see the dynamics between both of them working together under the premiership of Sunak.

Gove’s interview to Nick Robinson on BBC on November 12, 2023, showed he has leadership aspirations. In the half-hour interview, all the things Gove said were very smartly framed to such an extent that even Robinson had to remind him that he is a Conservative minister. In the last four years, the UK has seen four Prime Ministers, and Gove is the most high-profile PM aspirant who continues to be in the Cabinet.

Sunak, Suella and Priti Patel

Effectively, three of the better-known Indian-origin Tory politicians do not enjoy good relations. Priti Patel is one of Johnson’s most ardent supporters who served as home secretary for three years during his tenure as PM. And none of Johnson’s supporters can forget that it was Sunak’s resignation that went a long way in causing Johnson’s downfall. Patel resigned in September 2022, when it became apparent that Johnson’s successor Liz Truss would not have continued with her.

Since then she has criticised several policies of Sunak accusing him of overseeing the “managed decline” of the Tory party. Patel also attacked Braverman when the latter said that “multiculturalism has failed” in the UK. As of now, both Braverman and Patel are popular with the Tory right wing as they hail their hard-line stance on immigration.

It is still early to speculate whether Braverman would join the Johnson group, which is already top heavy. The presence of Priti Patel makes it, at present, difficult to imagine Braverman playing any leading role. She will continue to knife Sunak having made a blistering attack with her resignation letter. It will take a few more weeks, if not months, for Braverman’s opposition to crystallise into a more organised manner considering she just left the post of home secretary. The possibility of Braverman herself developing into a strong leadership contender cannot be ruled out.

On Wednesday (November 15, 2023) one of the most eagerly awaited court judgments for the Sunak administration was delivered by the UK Supreme Court. The highest court in the land ruled that the government’s Rwanda policy was unlawful. Former UK home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman both were in favour of certain people claiming asylum in the UK to be sent to Rwanda for their claims to be decided by the Rwandan authorities. If their claims were successful, they were to be granted asylum in Rwanda. Both Braverman and Patel have expounded on what the government should do next. It remains a controversial policy, and judicial defeats in the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court mean that Sunak has to come up with a new plan.

Patel is a key member of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), a faction within the Tory party which calls the election of Sunak “undemocratic”. Essentially, CDO’s plank is to oppose Sunak and is filled with Johnson’s loyalists. Braverman is part of the European Research Group (ERG), which she chaired in 2017. The ERG has been around for much longer than CDO and Andrea Jenkyns, its current deputy chairwoman since 2019, has become the first Tory MP to issue a letter of no confidence in Rishi Sunak.

The current cabinet

In contrast to CDO and ERG, is the Tory Reform Group or the One Nation group, which dominated David Cameron’s administration. Several of them were shown the door by Boris Johnson after they failed to back his exit plans in September 2019. The group is currently represented in Sunak’s cabinet by Alex Chalk (Justice Secretary) and Gillian Keegan (Education Secretary). It is estimated that the Tory Reform Group has about 100 MPs, and will be better reflected in Sunak’s team.

Viktoria Atkins who resigned as justice minister from Johnson’s Cabinet has made a comeback, getting the important position of Health Secretary. Laura Trott, who also resigned from Johnson’s administration, has made a huge jump as chief secretary to the treasury, a position which was once held by Sunak. Trott is a former special adviser to David Cameron. Claire Coutinho (Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary) and Lucy Frazer (Culture, Media and Sport Secretary) are staunch Sunak loyalists who have backed him in the leadership race. Esther McVey, a known rightwinger and former pensions secretary, has been made minister without portfolio and will sit for Cabinet meetings, perhaps to compensate for Braverman. It is highly unlikely though that cabinet ministers would go as far as Braverman, to term those sleeping in tents on UK streets as making a “lifestyle choice” or branding pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches”.

Among the other prominent names in Cabinet with leadership ambitions apart from Michael Gove, are Grant Shapps (Defence Secretary), Jeremy Hunt (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Kemi Badenoch (Minister for Equalities), and James Cleverly (Home Secretary). Cameron’s elevation also signifies that Sunak has included one of the most prominent "Remainers" in a cabinet that including himself voted overwhelmingly for Brexit.

Sunak’s cabinet thus is a combination of those who saw Johnson’s presence as PM as highly toxic to Brand Tory, avid Remainers like Cameron, and Brexiteers.

Cameron’s inclusion also points out that Sunak will not be in a rush to call for general elections and will occupy Downing Street right till the end. This is because it is highly unlikely that Cameron would have agreed to come back from political oblivion to face an early election. It was Sunak’s mentor, the former foreign secretary Lord William Hague who had a role in facilitating Cameron’s entry to Sunak’s cabinet. Sunak represents Richmond (North Yorkshire) in the House of Commons, which was Hague’s constituency for over 25 years.

Unlike Hague and Cameron, Sunak voted for Brexit in 2016 and is now clearly eager to take a centrist approach. How would that translate into policy decisions is the test for Sunak’s premiership.