Former prime minister David Cameron has been confirmed as the new foreign secretary in a surprise political comeback.
The move is part of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle after he sacked Suella Braverman as home secretary on Monday morning.
James Cleverley replaced her and left the position of Foreign Secretary open, leading to Cameron’s surprise return. He will now be known as Lord Cameron as he was quickly admitted to the House of Lords so he could take up the post as he is not an MP.
Why did David Cameron resign as prime minister?
Lord Cameron was prime minister between 2010 and 2016 but resigned after losing the Brexit referendum.
In his resignation speech, Lord Cameron said he was “very proud and honored to have been Prime Minister of this country for six years.”
He continued: “While leaving Europe was not the route I recommended, I am the first to praise our incredible strengths.
“I have said before that the UK can survive outside the European Union and that we can indeed find a way.
“Now that the decision has been made to leave, we need to find the best path forward and I will do everything I can to help.”
Lord Cameron initially said he would remain on the Conservative backbencher, but on 12 September 2016 he announced that he would resign from his seat of Witney, Oxfordshire, with immediate effect.
Lord Cameron held office for fifteen years, first entering the House of Commons in June 2001. He was succeeded by Robert Courts, who continues to hold this position.
As he resigned, the former prime minister said he did not want his presence on the backbenches to act as a “distraction” to Theresa May, who succeeded him in No 10.
“As a former prime minister, it is very difficult for me to act as a facilitator and not be distracted from what the government is doing,” he said. “I don’t want to be such a distraction.”
Why is David Cameron eligible to join the Cabinet?
The unwritten constitution of Great Britain does not require anyone to be a member of the House of Commons to hold a ministerial post or even to sit in the cabinet.
In the past, you didn’t even have to sit in the upper house to govern the country. Alec Douglas-Home, who was prime minister from 1963 to 1964, was absent from both houses for nine days while holding the most powerful post in the country.
The Constitution has not changed since then, but the Ministers Act now states that to become a minister you must be a member of either the Upper House or the Lower House.
Lord Cameron was parachuted into the House of Lords to take up a cabinet post.
The King confirmed that the former Prime Minister received a life peerage upon the creation of the barony of the United Kingdom.
There are many previous examples of members of the House of Lords holding cabinet positions. Baroness Morgan was Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport under Boris Johnson from July 2019 to February 2020.
Lord Peter Mandelson was business minister and de facto deputy prime minister in Gordon Brown’s government, although he left the House of Commons in 2004.
Lord Andrew Adonis was also Minister of Transport in the same government, although he was never elected to the House of Commons.
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Source: I News
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