David Cameron to return to cabinet table as Rishi Sunak meets with new top team

Published

2 years ago

November 14, 2023

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Rishi Sunak will meet with his new cabinet today after a dramatic shakeup of his top team saw David Cameron make an unexpected return to frontline politics.

In a major gamble to revive his faltering premiership, the prime minister gave the former Tory leader a peerage in order to make him foreign secretary.

It means the now Lord Cameron will be back around the Cabinet table on Tuesday for the first time since he stood down as prime minister and quit as an MP after losing the Brexit referendum in 2016.

The reshuffle has risked inflaming Conservative divisions as it included the sacking of controversial home secretary Suella Braverman – a popular figure on the right of the party.

Ms Braverman was purged after she accused the Metropolitan Police of left-wing bias in its handling of protests in an article for The Times which was not fully authorised by Number 10. She had also come under criticism in previous weeks for saying that homeless people living in tents was a “lifestyle choice”.

Former minister Andrea Jenkyns submitted a furious letter of no confidence in Mr Sunak to the Tory backbench 1922 Committee in the wake of the decision.

She argued that Ms Braverman “was the only person in the cabinet with the balls to speak the truth of the appalling state of our streets and a two-tier policing system that leaves Jewish community in fear for their lives and safety”.

“If it wasn’t bad enough that we have a party leader that the party members rejected, the polls demonstrate that the public reject him, and I am in full agreement. It is time for Rishi Sunak to go,” the MP added.

The letter does not in itself threaten to provoke a vote of no confidence in the Conservative leader, as the threshold stands at 15% of sitting Tory MPs.

But Number 10 may be wary of more to come after a group of hardline Tory MPs held a meeting in parliament on Monday where concerns were shared about the reshuffle.

Around 12 MPs, including Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson and former cabinet minister Simon Clarke attended in person at the New Conservatives grouping led by Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates.

Other MPs to criticise Ms Braverman’s removal include Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, who warned that the Conservatives “are in danger” of losing votes to the right-wing Reform party.

The former Brexit minister said while Ms Braverman was prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (EHRC) to enact the controversial Rwanda deportation plan, currently held up in the courts, her successor James Cleverly has signalled he does not want to do this.

“There is a distinct watering down on the migration policy,” he told BBC Newsnight.

Ms Braverman has said little about her departure so far but in a potentially ominous warning to Mr Sunak, said she would have more to say “in due course”.

Meanwhile former cabinet secretary Therese Villiers told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge she would be a “force to be reckoned with” on the backbenches.

Mr Cleverly, the former foreign secretary, has insisted he will be just as committed to the government’s “stop the boats pledge” in his new role.

His appointment is likely to face more scrutiny in the coming days, with a Supreme Court judgement due on Wednesday on whether the much-delayed Rwanda plan is lawful.

But for the moment it has largely been overshadowed by the political comeback of Lord Cameron.

Cameron comeback massive shock

The appointment was a massive shock in Westminster, not just because of the return of a former prime minister to government – the first since Alec Douglas-Home in the 1970s – but also because of his views on China.

During the Cameron administration there was a “golden era” of UK-China co-operation, something Mr Sunak described as “naive” last year following growing tensions with Beijing.

Lord Cameron has also been critical of Mr Sunak’s decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, while the prime minister used his Tory conference speech to distance himself from the legacy of his predecessors.

But the former prime minister made it clear he backs Mr Sunak and will work with him to help the Tories win the general election, which is expected next year.

The new foreign secretary said: “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.”

The appointment has raised questions about how he will be held to account if he can’t answer to MPs in the Commons.

He also faces questions over the Greensill affair, in which he privately lobbied ministers in an attempt to win Greensill Capital access to an emergency coronavirus loan scheme.

This was seized on by opposition MPs who criticised the “clown show” reshuffle, which also saw Steve Barclay take Therese Coffey’s job as environment secretary, while Victoria Atkins became health secretary.

In another key appointment, GB News presenter and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey was brought back into government as a minister without portfolio, reportedly to “speak common sense” on behalf of the government and push forward its “anti-woke” agenda, in a conciliatory move to the Tory right.

However many of the party’s One Nation MPs – closer to the centre of politics – may welcome the return of Lord Cameron, who secured them two victories at general elections and is well known internationally.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock said of the reshuffle: “Excellent for the Conservatives, showing Rishi Sunak will fight the election on the centre ground.”

Politics

PM issues warning to European leaders ahead of ECHR talks

Published

35 mins ago

December 10, 2025

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PM issues warning to European leaders ahead of ECHR talks

Sir Keir Starmer has called for a tougher approach to policing Europe’s borders ahead of a meeting between leaders to discuss a potential shake-up of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The prime minister said the way in which the ECHR is interpreted in courts must be modernised, with critics long claiming the charter is a major barrier to deportations of illegal migrants.

His deputy, David Lammy, will today be in Strasbourg, France, with fellow European ministers to discuss reforms of how the agreement is interpreted in law across the continent.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, Sir Keir and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, said the change was necessary to prevent voters from turning to populist political opponents.

What’s the issue with the ECHR?

The ECHR, which is the foundation of Britain’s Human Rights Act, includes the right to family life in its Article 8.

That is often used as grounds to prevent deportations of illegal migrants from the UK.

There has also been a rise in cases where Article 3 rights, prohibiting torture, were used to halt deportations over claims migrants’ healthcare needs could not be met in their home country, according to the Home Office.

The Conservatives and Reform UK have both said they would leave the ECHR if in power, while the Labour government has insisted it will remain a member of the treaty.

But Sir Keir admitted in his joint op-ed that the “current asylum framework was created for another era”.

“In a world with mass mobility, yesterday’s answers do not work. We will always protect those fleeing war and terror – but the world has changed, and asylum systems must change with it,” the two prime ministers wrote, as they push for a “modernisation of the interpretation” of the ECHR.

What is happening today?

Mr Lammy is attending an informal summit of the Council of Europe.

He is expected to say: “We must strike a careful balance between individual rights and the public’s interest.

“The definition of ‘family life’ can’t be stretched to prevent the removal of people with no right to remain in the country [and] the threshold of ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ must be constrained to the most serious issues.”

It is understood that a political declaration signed by the gathered ministers could carry enough weight to directly influence how the European Court of Human Rights interprets the treaty.

The UK government is expected to bring forward its own legislation to change how Article 8 is interpreted in UK courts, and is also considering a re-evaluation of the threshold for Article 3 rights.

The plans have been criticised by Amnesty International UK, which described them as weakening protections.

“Human rights were never meant to be optional or reserved for comfortable and secure times. They were designed to be a compass, our conscience, when the politics of fear and division try to steer us wrong,” Steve Valdez-Symonds, the organisation’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, said.

Sir Keir’s government has already adopted several hardline immigration measures – modelled on those introduced by Ms Federiksen’s Danish government – to decrease the number of migrants crossing the Channel via small boats.

Starmer-Macron deal ‘a sticking plaster’

Meanwhile, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella told The Daily Telegraph he would rewrite his country’s border policy to allow British patrol boats to push back small vessels carrying migrants into France’s waters if he were elected.

The National Rally leader called Sir Keir’s “one-in, one-out” agreement with Emmanuel Macron, which includes Britain returning illegal arrivals in exchange for accepting a matching number of legitimate asylum seekers, a “sticking plaster” and “smokescreen”.

He said that only a complete overhaul of French immigration policy would stop the Channel crossings.

Mr Bardella is currently leading in opinion polls to win the first round of France’s next presidential election, expected to happen in 2027, to replace Mr Macron.

Politics

Trump to begin interviews with Fed chair finalists this week: FT

Published

3 hours ago

December 10, 2025

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Trump to begin interviews with Fed chair finalists this week: FT

The race for the new US Federal Reserve chair is nearing the finish line, with US President Donald Trump reportedly set to begin interviewing finalists for the top job this week.

According to a report from the Financial Times on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has presented a list of four names to the White House.

One of these is former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, whom Bessent is scheduled to meet with on Wednesday. Another is National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, who is seen as the frontrunner for the role.

Another two names would be picked from a list of other finalists, which includes Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, and BlackRock chief investment officer Rick Rieder.

Trump and Bessent are expected to hold at least one interview next week, as a decision looks likely to be announced in January.

However, Trump has revealed he already has his eye on one particular candidate.

“We’re going to be looking at a couple different people, but I have a pretty good idea of who I want,” Trump said to journalists on Air Force One on Tuesday.

Kevin Hassett is a frontrunner for Fed chair role

The upcoming round of interviews suggests that Hassett may not be the clear lock in for the role as previously thought, though he is seen as the favorite.

Earlier this month, prediction market odds on Kalshi and Polymarket shot up for Hassett significantly following comments from Trump at the White House on Dec. 2.

While welcoming guests, Trump labeled Hassett as “potential Fed chair” leading many to assume the president had let a major hint slip.

With Hassett’s odds spiking to 85% after Trump’s comments last week, they have since declined to around 73% for Hassett, while Warsh’s odds sit at 13% on Kalshi at the time of writing, which has floated around this range over December.