Everything Cameron has been up to since No10 - £25k hut, lobbying row, gun gaffe

13 November 2023 , 12:25

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The austerity PM was appointed Foreign Secretary in Rishi Sunak's reshuffle (Image: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

Austerity architect David Cameron has made a surprise return to Government as Rishi Sunak conducted a major reshuffle of his top team.

The ex-Tory leader who quit as PM in the wake of the Brexit vote in 2016 will be given a seat in the House of Lords so that he can make a comeback. The new Foreign Secretary Mr Cameron said he wanted to help Mr Sunak "deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and 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".

Labour said the move was the "last gasp act of desperation from a government devoid of talent and ideas" while making a mockery of the PM's "laughable claim to offer change".

But what has Mr Cameron been doing since he left No10? Despite claiming he would continue on the Tory backbenchers when he resigned from No10 seven years ago, Mr Cameron made a quick U-turn and quit the Commons altogether. He said he did not want to serve as a "distraction" to his successor Theresa May. The same year he became chairman of the National Citizen Service Patrons and in January 2017 he was appointed president of Alzheimer's Research UK.

After stepping away from frontline politics, the former Tory leader purchased a £25,000 shepherd's hut - a writing retreat for his memoir, For The Record. The book, which Mr Cameron reportedly received an £800,000 deal for, was published in 2019 but the sales figures were not very impressive. The memoir revealed how wife Samantha helped convince him to come out in support of gay marriage and swearing in front of the late Queen.

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The former PM was reported to have purchased the writing retreat sheppard's hut for £25k (PA)

But Mr Cameron's role as an adviser to the collapsed firm Greensill Capital two years after leaving government left him at the centre of a major lobbying scandal. The company was founded by the Australian banker Lex Greensill, who had been brought in as an unpaid adviser in No10 during Mr Cameron's tenure in Downing Street.

According to the Financial Times, the ex-PM was paid a salary of more than $1million. His extensive lobbying efforts of senior ministers, including the then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, for access to emergency Covid loans was exposed after the company's collapse.

Mr Cameron's efforts were unsuccessful and the episode shone a spotlight on lobbying in Westminster and prompted a look at how rules can be tightened. The former PM said at the time he was "breaking no codes of conduct and no government rules" but accepted "communications with government need to be done through only the most formal of channels, so there can be no room for misinterpretation' '.

During his time at Greensill it was also reported Mr Cameron went on a desert camping trip to lobby the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in January 2020. The trip came around a year after the brutal murder of the Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A US intelligence report said the Saudi crown prince approved the killing.

The former PM Mr Cameron was also chairman of software firm Afiniti's advisory board between 2019 and 2021, when he quit after its founder, Zia Chishti, was accused of sexual harassment. A statement from Mr Cameron said the alleged events took place before he started his job and he did not know about the incident until it was made public.

Mr Cameron's office released a statement saying he had resigned as chairman of the company's advisory board "with immediate effect", "with regret, given the success and promise of this exciting company, and the commitment, dedication and loyalty of the many hard-working employees with whom he has enjoyed working."

There was also a scandal in February 2020 when Mr Cameron's bodyguard was suspended after leaving a loaded gun in a toilet on a flight from New York to London. A "terrified passenger" provoked panic after finding the 9mm Glock 17 pistol - along with passports belonging to Cameron and the Metropolitan Police close-protection officer - in the loo of the BA plane.

The ex-Tory PM resigned just hours after the result of the EU referendum in 2016 (Getty Images)

The force told the Mirror at the time: "We are aware of the incident on a flight into the UK on 3 February and the officer involved has since been removed from operational duties. We are taking this matter extremely seriously and an internal investigation is taking place."

With things not going amazingly well for Mr Cameron, there were reports in November 2018 that he wanted a return to frontline politics because he was "bored s***less". The former Prime Minister reportedly told friends at the time he was mulling a return to politics and was hoping to be made Foreign Secretary. One source told The Sun: "David is dedicated to public service, and has often said he wouldn’t rule out a public role one day, domestically or internationally. But he is only 52, and still a young man."

But until Monday nothing ever came of the speculation and Mr Cameron turned down the offer from ex-PM Boris Johnson to lead the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow last November. His former climate change minister Greg Barker said at the time on BBC Newsnight: "My understanding is that he felt it was just a little too soon for him personally to come back into a front-line political role."

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Earlier this year the ex-PM faced a grilling at the Covid Inquiry as he was interrogated for more than two hours about how his government, which was responsible for massive public spending cuts, prepared for a pandemic. He was heckled with shouts of "shame on you" after he defended austerity measures at the Inquiry.

In October Mr Cameron was also highly critical of Mr Sunak's decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 at the Tory party conference in Manchester in October. He said at the time it was the "wrong decision" and evidence the country was "heading in the wrong direction". In a brutal swipe at the government he now serves in, Mr Cameron said: "I regret this decision and in years to come I suspect many will look back at today’s announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost."

He appeared to address the criticism as he accepted the role as Foreign Secretary in Mr Sunak's reshuffle, saying: "Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time. "I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and 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."

Ashley Cowburn