David William Donald Cameron (pronunciation:
/ˈkæmərən/;
born 9 October 1966) is the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
First Lord of the Treasury,
Minister for the Civil Service and
Leader of the
Conservative Party. He represents
Witney as its
Member of Parliament (MP).[1]
Cameron studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at
Oxford, gaining a
first class honours degree. He then joined the
Conservative Research Department and became
Special Adviser to
Norman Lamont, and then to
Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at
Carlton Communications for seven years.
He was defeated in his first candidacy for
Parliament at
Stafford in 1997, but was elected in
2001 as the
Member of Parliament for the
Oxfordshire constituency of
Witney. He was promoted to the
Opposition
front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of
policy co-ordination during the
2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a youthful,
moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the
Conservative leadership election in 2005.[2]
In the
2010 general election held on 6 May, the Conservatives won 307 seats
in a
hung parliament. After five days of intense negotiations, Cameron
formed a
coalition with the
Liberal Democrats. The 43-year-old Cameron became the youngest
British Prime Minister since the
Earl of Liverpool 198 years earlier.[3]
Cameron leads the first
coalition government of the
United Kingdom since the
Second World War.
Family
David Cameron is the younger son of
stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010)[4]
and his wife Mary Fleur (née
Mount, born 1934,[5]
a retired
Justice of the Peace, daughter of
Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet).[6]
His father, Ian, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated
operations to correct them. Cameron's parents were married on 20 October
1962.[5]
He was born in London, and brought up in
Peasemore,
Berkshire.[7]
Cameron has a brother, Allan Alexander (born 1963, a
barrister and
QC)[8]
and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971).[5][9]
His father was born at
Blairmore House, a country house near
Huntly,
Aberdeenshire, and died near
Toulon,
in France,
on 8 September 2010.[10]
Blairmore was built by his great-great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes,[11]
who had made a fortune in the
grain trade in
Chicago,
and returned to
Scotland in the 1880s.[12]
He is eighth cousin of Donald Cameron, the present
Chief of Clan Cameron.
Through his paternal grandmother, Enid Agnes Maud Levita, Cameron is
a
lineal descendant of
King William IV by his mistress
Dorothea Jordan. This illegitimate line consists of five generations
of women starting with
Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll, née FitzClarence, William and
Jordan's sixth child,[13]
through to Cameron's grandmother (thereby making Cameron a 5th cousin of
Queen
Elizabeth II).[14]
Cameron's paternal forebears also have a long history in finance. His
father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers
Panmure Gordon, in which firm partnerships had long been held by
Cameron's ancestors, including David's grandfather and
great-grandfather,[9]
and was a Director of
estate agent John D. Wood. David Cameron's great-great grandfather
Emile Levita, a
German Jewish financier (and descendant of Renaissance scholar
Elia Levita), who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the
director of the
Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became
Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[14]
His wife, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was a descendant of the
wealthy
Danish Jewish Rée family on her father's side.[15][16]
One of Emile's sons, Arthur Francis Levita (died 1910, brother of
Sir Cecil Levita),[17]
of
Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, together with great-great-grandfather
Sir Ewen Cameron,[18]
London head of the
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, played key roles in arranging loans
supplied by the
Rothschilds to the
Japanese Central Banker (later Prime Minister)
Takahashi Korekiyo for the financing of the Japanese Government in
the
Russo-Japanese war.[19]
Cameron's maternal grandfather was
Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, an Army officer who served as
High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather
was
Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet,
CBE, Conservative MP for
Newbury 1918–1922. Cameron's great-great grandmother was
Lady Ida
Matilda Alice Feilding. His great-great-great grandfather was
William Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh,
GCH,
PC, a
courtier and
Gentleman of the Bedchamber.[20]
His mother's cousin,
Sir Ferdinand Mount, was head of
10 Downing Street's Policy Unit in the early 1980s. Cameron is the
nephew of
Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died
2004)
Lady-in-Waiting to
HM
The Queen since 1955,[21][22]
and former Chairman of
Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham-born documentary filmmaker
Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.[23]
Education
From the age of seven, Cameron was educated at two
independent schools: at
Heatherdown Preparatory School at
Winkfield, in
Berkshire, which counts
Prince Andrew and
Prince Edward among its alumni. Due to good academic grades, Cameron
entered its top academic class almost two years early.[24]
At the age of thirteen, he went to
Eton College in
Berkshire, following his father and elder brother.[25]
Eton is often described as the most famous independent school in the
world,[26]
and "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".[27]
His early interest was in art. Six weeks before taking his
O-Levels he was named as having smoked
cannabis.[2]
He admitted the offence and had not been involved in selling drugs, so
he was not expelled, but was fined, prevented from leaving school
grounds, and given a "Georgic"
(a punishment which involved copying 500 lines of
Latin text).[28]
Cameron passed 12
O-levels, and then studied three
A-Levels in
History of Art, History and Economics with Politics. He obtained
three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the
Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics.[29]
The following autumn he passed the entrance exam for
Oxford University, where he was offered an
exhibition.[30]
After leaving Eton in 1984,[31]
Cameron started a nine-month
gap
year. He worked as a researcher for
Tim Rathbone, Conservative MP for
Lewes, his godfather. In his three months he attended debates in the
House of Commons.[32]
Through his father, he was then employed for a further three months in
Hong
Kong by
Jardine Matheson as a 'ship jumper', an administrative post.[33]
Returning from Hong Kong he visited the then
Soviet Union, where he was approached by two
Russian
men speaking fluent English. Cameron was later told by one of his
professors that it was 'definitely an attempt' by the
KGB to
recruit him.[34]
Cameron then began his
Bachelor of Arts studies in
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at
Brasenose College, Oxford.[35]
His tutor,
Professor
Vernon Bogdanor, described him as "one of the ablest"[36]
students he has taught, with "moderate and sensible Conservative"
political views.[9]
Guy
Spier, who shared tutorials with him, remembers him as an
outstanding student; "We were doing our best to grasp basic economic
concepts. David - there was nobody else who came even close. He would be
integrating them with the way the British political system is put
together. He could have lectured me on it, and I would have sat there
and taken notes.."[37]
When commenting in 2006 on his former pupil's ideas about a "Bill of
Rights" to replace the
Human Rights Act, however, Professor Bogdanor, himself a
Liberal Democrat, said, "I think he is very confused. I've read his
speech and it's filled with contradictions. There are one or two good
things in it but one glimpses them, as it were, through a mist of
misunderstanding".[38]
While at Oxford, Cameron was a member of the élite student dining
society, the
Bullingdon Club, with a reputation for an outlandish drinking
culture associated with boisterous behaviour and damaging property.[39]
A photograph showing Cameron in a
tailcoat with other members of this exclusive club, including
Boris Johnson, surfaced in 2007, but was later withdrawn by the
copyright holder.[40]
Cameron's period in the
Bullingdon Club was examined in a Channel 4 docu-drama,
When Boris Met Dave, broadcast on 7 October 2009.[41]
His friends outside the Bullingdon Club included fellow PPE student
Catherine Fall. Cameron graduated in 1988 with a
first class honours degree (MA).[42]
Early
political career
Conservative Research Department
After graduation, Cameron worked for the
Conservative Research Department between September 1988[43]
and 1993. A feature on Cameron in
The Mail on Sunday on 18 March 2007 reported that on the day he
was due to attend a job interview at
Conservative Central Office, a phone call was received from
Buckingham Palace. The male caller stated, "I understand you are to
see David Cameron. I've tried everything I can to dissuade him from
wasting his time on politics but I have failed. I am ringing to tell you
that you are about to meet a truly remarkable young man."[44]
In 1991, Cameron was seconded to
Downing Street to work on briefing
John Major for his then bi-weekly session of
Prime Minister's Questions. One newspaper gave Cameron the credit
for "sharper [...]
despatch box performances" by Major,[45]
which included highlighting for Major "a dreadful piece of
doublespeak" by
Tony Blair (then the
Labour
Employment spokesman) over the effect of a national
minimum wage.[46]
He became head of the political section of the Conservative Research
Department, and in August 1991 was tipped to follow
Judith Chaplin as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister.[47]
However, Cameron lost to
Jonathan Hill, who was appointed in March 1992. He was given the
responsibility for briefing Major for his press conferences during the
1992 general election.[48]
During the campaign, Cameron was one of the young "brat pack" of party
strategists who worked between 12 and 20 hours a day, sleeping in the
house of
Alan Duncan in
Gayfere Street,
Westminster, which had been Major's campaign headquarters during his
bid for the Conservative leadership.[49]
Cameron headed the economic section; it was while working on this
campaign that Cameron first worked closely with
Steve Hilton, who was later to become Director of Strategy during
his party leadership.[50]
The strain of getting up at 4:45 am every day was reported to have led
Cameron to decide to leave politics in favour of journalism.[51]
Special Adviser to the Chancellor
The Conservatives' unexpected success in the 1992 election led
Cameron to hit back at older party members who had criticised him and
his colleagues, saying "whatever people say about us, we got the
campaign right," and that they had listened to their campaign workers on
the ground rather than the newspapers. He revealed he had led other
members of the team across
Smith Square to jeer at
Transport House, the former Labour headquarters.[52]
Cameron was rewarded with a promotion to
Special Adviser to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Norman Lamont.[53]
Cameron was working for Lamont at the time of
Black Wednesday, when pressure from currency speculators forced the
Pound sterling out of the
European Exchange Rate Mechanism. At the 1992 Conservative Party
conference, Cameron had difficulty trying to arrange to brief the
speakers in the economic debate, having to resort to putting messages on
the internal television system imploring the mover of the motion,
Patricia Morris, to contact him.[54]
Later that month Cameron joined a delegation of Special Advisers who
visited Germany to build better relations with the
Christian Democratic Union; he was reported to be "still smarting"
over the
Bundesbank's contribution to the economic crisis.[55]
Lamont fell out with John Major after Black Wednesday and became
highly unpopular with the public. Taxes needed to be raised in the 1993
Budget, and Cameron fed the options Lamont was considering through to
Conservative Central Office for their political acceptability to be
assessed.[56]
However, Lamont's unpopularity did not necessarily affect Cameron: he
was considered as a potential "kamikaze"
candidate for the
Newbury by-election, which includes the area where he grew up.[57]
However, Cameron decided not to stand.
During the by-election, Lamont gave the response "Je
ne regrette rien" to a question about whether he most regretted
claiming to see "the green shoots of recovery" or admitted "singing in
his bath" with happiness at leaving the
ERM. Cameron was identified by one journalist as having inspired
this gaffe; it was speculated that the heavy Conservative defeat in
Newbury may have cost Cameron his chance of becoming Chancellor himself,
even though as he was not a Member of Parliament he could not have been.[58]
Lamont was sacked at the end of May 1993, and decided not to write the
usual letter of resignation; Cameron was given the responsibility to
issue to the press a statement of self-justification.[59]
Special Adviser to the Home Secretary
After Lamont was sacked, Cameron remained at the
Treasury for less than a month before being specifically recruited
by
Home Secretary
Michael Howard; it was commented that he was still "very much in
favour".[60]
It was later reported that many at the Treasury would have preferred
Cameron to carry on.[61]
At the beginning of September 1993, Cameron applied to go on
Conservative Central Office's list of Prospective Parliamentary
Candidates.[62]
According to
Derek Lewis, then Director-General of
Her Majesty's Prison Service, Cameron showed him a "his and hers
list" of proposals made by Howard and his wife, Sandra. Lewis said that
Sandra Howard's list included reducing the quality of
prison food, although Sandra Howard denied this claim. Lewis
reported that Cameron was "uncomfortable" about the list.[63]
In defending Sandra Howard and insisting that she made no such proposal,
the journalist
Bruce Anderson wrote that Cameron had proposed a much shorter
definition on prison catering which revolved around the phrase "balanced
diet", and that Lewis had written thanking Cameron for a valuable
contribution.[64]
During his work for Howard, Cameron often briefed the media. In March
1994, someone leaked to the Press that the Labour Party had called for a
meeting with John Major to discuss a consensus on the
Prevention of Terrorism Act. After an inquiry failed to find the
source of the leak, Labour MP
Peter Mandelson demanded assurance from Howard that Cameron had not
been responsible, which Howard gave.[65][66]
A senior
Home Office
Civil Servant noted the influence of Howard's Special Advisers,
saying previous incumbents "would listen to the evidence before making a
decision. Howard just talks to young public school gentlemen from the
party headquarters."[67]
Carlton
In July 1994, Cameron left his role as Special Adviser to work as the
Director of Corporate Affairs at
Carlton Communications.[68]
Carlton, which had won the
ITV franchise
for London weekdays in 1991, was a growing media company which also had
film distribution and video producing arms. In 1997 Cameron played up
the Company's prospects for
digital terrestrial television, for which it joined with
Granada television and
BSkyB to
form
British Digital Broadcasting.[69]
In a roundtable discussion on the future of broadcasting in 1998 he
criticised the effect of overlapping different regulators on the
industry.[70]
Carlton's consortium did win the digital terrestrial franchise but
the resulting company suffered difficulties in attracting subscribers.
In 1999 the
Express on Sunday claimed Cameron had rubbished one of its
stories which had given an accurate number of subscribers, because he
wanted the number to appear higher than expected.[71]
Cameron resigned as Director of Corporate Affairs in February 2001 in
order to fight for election to Parliament, although he remained on the
payroll as a consultant.[72]
Parliamentary
candidacy
Stafford, the constituency Cameron contested in 1997
Having been approved for the Candidates' list, Cameron began looking
for a seat. He was reported to have missed out on selection for
Ashford in December 1994 after failing to get to the selection
meeting as a result of train delays.[73]
Early in 1996, he was selected for
Stafford, a new constituency created by boundary changes, which was
projected to have a Conservative majority.[74]
At the 1996 Conservative Party Conference he called for tax cuts in the
forthcoming Budget to be targeted at the low-paid and to "small
businesses where people took money out of their own pockets to put into
companies to keep them going".[75]
He also said the Party "should be proud of the Tory tax record but that
people needed reminding of its achievements ... It's time to return to
our tax-cutting agenda. The socialist Prime Ministers of Europe have
endorsed Tony Blair because they want a federal pussy cat and not a
British lion."[76]
When writing his election address, Cameron made his own opposition to
British membership of the
single European currency clear, pledging not to support it. This was
a break with official Conservative policy but about 200 other candidates
were making similar declarations.[77]
Otherwise, Cameron kept closely to the national party line. He also
campaigned using the claim that a Labour Government would increase the
cost of a pint of beer by 24p; however, the Labour candidate,
David Kidney, portrayed Cameron as "a right-wing Tory". Stafford had
a
swing almost the same as the national swing, which made it one of
the many seats to fall to Labour: David Kidney had a majority of 4,314.[78][79]
In the round of selection contests taking place in the run-up to the
2001 general election, Cameron again attempted to be selected for a
winnable seat. He tried out for the
Kensington and Chelsea seat after the death of
Alan Clark,[80]
but did not make the shortlist.
He was in the final two but narrowly lost at
Wealden in March 2000,[81]
a loss ascribed by Samantha Cameron to his lack of spontaneity when
speaking.[82]
On 4 April 2000 Cameron was selected as prospective candidate (PPC)
for
Witney in
Oxfordshire. This had been a safe Conservative seat but its sitting
MP
Shaun Woodward (who had worked with Cameron on the 1992 election
campaign) had "crossed the floor" to join the Labour Party; newspapers
claimed Cameron and Woodward had "loathed each other",[83]
although Cameron's biographers Francis Elliott and James Hanning
describe them as being "on fairly friendly terms".[84]
Cameron, advised in his strategy by friend
Catherine Fall, put a great deal of effort into "nursing" his
potential constituency, turning up at social functions, and attacking
Woodward for changing his mind on
fox hunting to support a ban.[85]
During the election campaign, Cameron accepted the offer of writing a
regular column for
The Guardian's online section.[86]
He won the seat with a 1.9% swing to the Conservatives and a majority of
7,973.[87][88]
Member of
Parliament
Upon his election to Parliament, he served as a member of the Commons
Home Affairs Select Committee, a prominent appointment for a newly
elected MP. Cameron proposed that the Committee launch an inquiry into
the law on drugs,[89]
and urged the consideration of "radical options".[90]
The report recommended a downgrading of
Ecstasy from Class A to Class B, as well as moves towards a policy
of 'harm
reduction', which Cameron defended.[91]
Cameron determinedly attempted to increase his public visibility,
offering quotations on matters of public controversy. He opposed the
payment of compensation to Gurbux Singh, who had resigned as head of the
Commission for Racial Equality after a confrontation with the
police;[92]
and commented that the Home Affairs Select Committee had taken a long
time to discuss whether the phrase "black market" should be used.[93]
However, he was passed over for a front bench promotion in July 2002;
Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith did invite Cameron and his ally
George Osborne to coach him on Prime Minister's Questions in
November 2002. The next week, Cameron deliberately abstained in a vote
on allowing same-sex and unmarried couples to adopt children jointly,
against a whip to oppose; his abstention was noted.[94]
The wide scale of abstentions and rebellious votes destabilised the Iain
Duncan Smith leadership.
In June 2003, Cameron was appointed as a
shadow minister in the
Privy Council Office as a deputy to
Eric Forth, who was then
Shadow Leader of the House. He also became a
vice-chairman
of the Conservative Party when
Michael Howard took over the leadership in November of that year. He
was appointed as the Opposition frontbench
local government spokesman in 2004, before being promoted into the
shadow cabinet that June as head of policy co-ordination. Later, he
became
Shadow Education Secretary in the post-election reshuffle.[95]
From February 2002[96]
until August 2005 he was a
non-executive director of Urbium PLC, operator of the
Tiger Tiger bar chain.[97]
Leadership of the Conservative Party
Leadership
election
Following the Labour victory in the
May 2005 general election,
Michael Howard announced his resignation as leader of the
Conservative Party and set a lengthy timetable for the
leadership election. Cameron announced formally that he would be a
candidate for the position on 29 September 2005. Parliamentary
colleagues supporting him initially included
Boris Johnson, Shadow Chancellor
George Osborne, then Shadow Defence Secretary and deputy leader of
the party
Michael Ancram,
Oliver Letwin[98]
and former party leader
William Hague.[99]
Despite this, his campaign did not gain significant support prior to the
2005 Conservative
Party Conference. However his speech, delivered without notes,
proved a significant turning point. In the speech he vowed to make
people, "feel good about being Conservatives again" and said he wanted,
"to switch on a whole new generation."[100]
In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Cameron
came second, with 56 votes, slightly more than expected;
David Davis had fewer than predicted at 62 votes;
Liam
Fox came third with 42 votes and
Kenneth Clarke was eliminated with 38 votes. In the second ballot on
20 October 2005, Cameron came first with 90 votes; David Davis was
second, with 57, and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes.[101]
All 198 Conservative MPs voted in both ballots.
The next stage of the election process, between Davis and Cameron,
was a vote open to the entire Conservative party membership. Cameron was
elected with more than twice as many votes as Davis and more than half
of all ballots issued; Cameron won 134,446 votes on a 78%
turnout, beating Davis's 64,398 votes.[102]
Although Davis had initially been the favourite, it was widely
acknowledged that Davis's candidacy was marred by a disappointing
conference speech.[103]
Cameron had made a well received speech without notes (which the
Daily Telegraph said "showed a sureness and a confidence that is
greatly to his credit").[104]
Cameron's election as the Leader of the Conservative Party and
Leader of the Opposition was announced on 6 December 2005. As is
customary for an Opposition leader not already a member, upon election
Cameron became a member of the
Privy Council, being formally approved to join on 14 December 2005,
and sworn of the Council on 8 March 2006.[105]
Cameron's appearance on the cover of Time in September 2008
was said by the
Daily Mail to present him to the world as 'Prime Minister in
waiting'.[106]
Reaction to Cameron as leader
Cameron being interviewed at the headquarters of
Oxfam in 2006
Cameron's relative youth and inexperience before becoming leader have
invited satirical comparison with
Tony Blair.
Private Eye soon published a picture of both leaders on their
front cover, with the caption "World's first face transplant a success".[107]
On the
left, New Statesman has unfavourably likened his "new style
of politics" to Tony Blair's early leadership years.[108]
Cameron is accused of paying excessive attention to image, with
ITV
News broadcasting footage from the 2006 Conservative Party
Conference in
Bournemouth which showed him wearing four different sets of clothes
within the space of a few hours.[109]
Cameron was characterised in a Labour Party political broadcast as "Dave
the Chameleon", who would change what he said to match the
expectations of his audience. Cameron later claimed that the broadcast
had become his daughter's "favourite video".[110]
He has also been described by comedy writer and broadcaster
Charlie Brooker as being "like a hollow Easter egg with no bag of
sweets inside" in his
Guardian column.[111]
On the
right,
Norman Tebbit, former
Chairman of the Conservative Party, has likened Cameron to
Pol Pot,
"intent on purging even the memory of
Thatcherism before building a New Modern Compassionate Green
Globally Aware Party".[112]
Quentin Davies MP, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour on
26 June 2007, branded him "superficial, unreliable and [with] an
apparent lack of any clear convictions" and stated that David Cameron
had turned the Conservative Party's mission into a "PR agenda".[113]
Traditionalist conservative columnist and author
Peter Hitchens has written that, "Mr Cameron has abandoned the last
significant difference between his party and the established left", by
embracing social liberalism[114]
and has dubbed the party under his leadership "Blue Labour", a pun on
New
Labour.[115]
Cameron responded by calling Hitchens a "maniac".[116]
Daily Telegraph correspondent and blogger
Gerald Warner has been particularly scathing about Cameron's
leadership, arguing that it is alienating
traditionalist conservative elements from the Conservative Party.[117]
Cameron is reported to be known to friends and family as "Dave",
though he prefers to use "David'" in public.[118]
Critics often refer to him as "Call me Dave", implying
populism in the same way as "Call me Tony" was used in 1997.[119]
The
Times
columnist
Daniel Finkelstein has condemned those who attempt to belittle
Cameron by calling him 'Dave'.[120]
Shadow
Cabinet appointments
Cameron speaking at the Home Office, on 13 May 2010
His
Shadow Cabinet appointments have included MPs associated with the
various wings of the party. Former leader
William Hague was appointed to the Foreign Affairs brief, while both
George Osborne and
David Davis were retained, as
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Shadow Home Secretary respectively. Hague, assisted by Davis, stood
in for Cameron during his
paternity leave in February 2006.[121]
In June 2008 Davis announced his intention to resign as an MP, and was
immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary by
Dominic Grieve, the surprise move seen as a challenge to the changes
introduced under Cameron's leadership.[122]
In January 2009 a
reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet was undertaken. The chief change was
the appointment of former
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Kenneth Clarke as Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Secretary, David Cameron stating that "With Ken Clarke's arrival, we now
have the best economic team." The reshuffle saw eight other changes
made.[123]
European Conservatives and Reformists
During his successful campaign to be elected Leader of the
Conservative Party, Cameron pledged that the Conservative Party's
Members of the European Parliament would leave the
European People's Party group, which had a "federalist" approach to
the European Union.[124]
Once elected Cameron began discussions with right-wing and
eurosceptic parties in other European countries, mainly in eastern
Europe, and in July 2006 he concluded an agreement to form the
Movement for European Reform with the Czech
Civic Democratic Party, leading to the formation of a new European
Parliament group, the
European Conservatives and Reformists, in 2009 after the European
Parliament elections.[125]
Cameron attended a gathering at
Warsaw's
Palladium cinema celebrating the foundation of the alliance.[126]
In forming the caucus, which had 54
MEPs drawn from eight of the 27
EU member states, Cameron reportedly broke with two decades of
Conservative cooperation with the centre-right Christian Democrats, the
European People's Party (EPP),[127]
on the grounds that they are dominated by European
federalists and supporters of the
Lisbon treaty.[127]
EPP leader
Wilfried Martens, former
prime minister of Belgium, has stated "Cameron's campaign has been
to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major
exception: Europe. ... I can't understand his tactics.
Merkel and
Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism."[127]
The
left-wing
New Statesman magazine reported that the
US administration had "concerns about Cameron among top members of
the team" and quoted
David Rothkopf in saying that the issue "makes Cameron an even more
dubious choice to be Britain's next prime minister than he was before
and, should he attain that post, someone about whom the Obama
administration ought to be very cautious."[128]
Shortlists for Parliamentary Candidates
Similarly, Cameron's initial "A-List"
of prospective parliamentary candidates has been attacked by members of
his party,[129]
with the policy now having been discontinued in favour of sex-balanced
final shortlists. These have been criticised by senior Conservative MP
and Prisons Spokeswoman
Ann Widdecombe as an "insult to women", Widdecombe accusing Cameron
of "storing up huge problems for the future."[130][131]
The plans have since led to conflict in a number of constituencies,
including the widely reported resignation of
Joanne Cash, a close friend of Cameron, as candidate in the
constituency of
Westminster North following a dispute described as "a battle for the
soul of the Tory Party".[131]
2010 general
election
The Conservatives had last
won a general election in 1992. The
general election of 2010 resulted in the Conservatives, led by
Cameron, winning the largest number of seats (306). This was, however,
20 seats short of an overall majority and resulted in the nation's first
hung parliament since
February 1974.[132]
Talks between Cameron and
Liberal Democrat leader
Nick Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.
Prime Minister
On 11 May 2010, following the resignation of
Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and on his recommendation,
Queen Elizabeth II invited Cameron to form a government.[133]
At age 43, Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since
Lord Liverpool, who was appointed in 1812.[3]
In his first address outside
10 Downing Street, he announced his intention to form a
coalition government, the first since the
Second World War, with the
Liberal Democrats.
Cameron outlined how he intended to "put aside party differences and
work hard for the common good and for the national interest."[3]
As one of his first moves Cameron appointed
Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as
Deputy Prime Minister on 11 May 2010.[133]
Between them, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats control 363 seats
in the House of Commons, with a majority of 76 seats.[134]
On 2 June 2010, when Cameron took his first session of
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) as Prime Minister, he began by
offering his support and condolences to those affected by the
shootings in Cumbria.[135]
On 5 February 2011, Cameron criticised the failure of 'state
multiculturalism', in his first speech as PM on radicalisation and
the causes of terrorism.[136]
Policies and views
Self-description of views
Cameron describes himself as a "modern
compassionate conservative" and has spoken of a need for a new style
of politics, saying that he was "fed up with the
Punch and Judy politics of
Westminster".[137]
He has stated that he is "certainly a big
Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite."[138]
He has also claimed to be a "liberal Conservative", and "not a deeply
ideological person."[139]
As Leader of the Opposition, Cameron stated that he did not intend to
oppose the government as a matter of course, and would offer his support
in areas of agreement. He has urged politicians to concentrate more on
improving people's happiness and "general well-being", instead of
focusing solely on "financial wealth".[140]
There have been claims that he described himself to journalists at a
dinner during the leadership contest as the "heir
to Blair".[141]
He believes that British
Muslims
have a duty to
integrate into British culture, but notes that they find aspects
such as high divorce rates and drug use uninspiring, and that "Not for
the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain
which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not
the other way around."[142]
Daniel Finkelstein has said of the period leading up to Cameron's
election as leader of the Conservative party that "a small group of us
(myself, David Cameron, George Osborne,
Michael Gove,
Nick Boles,
Nick Herbert I think, once or twice) used to meet up in the offices
of
Policy Exchange, eat pizza, and consider the future of the
Conservative Party".[143]
Cameron co-operated with Dylan Jones, giving him interviews and
access, to enable him to produce the book Cameron on Cameron.[144]
Cameron favours legalising
same-sex marriage.[145]
Parliamentary
votes
During November 2001, Cameron voted to modify legislation allowing
people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for
an identifying birthmark to be applicable only in connection with a
terrorism investigation.[146]
In March 2002, he voted against banning the hunting of wild mammals with
dogs,[147]
being an occasional hunter himself.[148]
In April 2003, he voted against the introduction of a bill to ban
smoking in restaurants.[149]
In June 2003, he voted against
NHS Foundation Trusts.[150]
Also in 2003, he voted to keep the controversial
Section 28 clause.[151]
In March 2003, he voted against a motion that the case had not yet
been made for the
Iraq
War,[152]
and then supported using "all means necessary to ensure the disarmament
of Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction".[153]
In October 2003, however, he voted in favour of setting up a judicial
inquiry into the
Iraq
War.[154]
In October 2004, he voted in favour of the Civil Partnership Bill.[155]
In February 2005, he voted in favour of changing the text in the
Prevention of Terrorism Bill from "The Secretary of State may make a
control order against an individual" to "The Secretary of State may
apply to the court for a control order ..."[156]
In October 2005, he voted against the
Identity Cards Bill.[157]
Criticism of other parties and politicians
Cameron criticised
Gordon Brown (when Brown was
Chancellor of the Exchequer) for being "an analogue politician in a
digital age" and referred to him as "the roadblock to reform".[158]
He has also said that
John Prescott "clearly looks a fool" in light of allegations of
ministerial misconduct.[159]
During a speech to the Ethnic Media Conference on 29 November 2006,
Cameron also described
Ken Livingstone, the
Mayor of London, as an "ageing
far left politician" in reference to Livingstone's views on
multiculturalism.[160]
Since becoming prime minister, he has reacted to press reports that
Brown could be the next head of the
International Monetary Fund by hinting that he may block Brown from
being appointed to the role, citing the huge national debt that Brown
left the country with as a reason for Brown not being suitable for the
role.[161]
Cameron has accused the
United Kingdom Independence Party of being "fruitcakes, loonies and
closet racists, mostly,"[162]
leading UKIP leader
Nigel Farage to demand an apology for the remarks. Right-wing
Conservative MP
Bob
Spink, who later defected to UKIP, also criticised the remarks,[163]
as did the
Daily Telegraph.[164]
Cameron was seen encouraging Conservative MPs to join the
standing ovation given to Tony Blair at the end of his last Prime
Minister's Question Time; he had paid tribute to the "huge efforts"
Blair had made and said Blair had "considerable achievements to his
credit, whether it is peace in Northern Ireland or his work in the
developing world, which will endure".[165]
In 2006, Cameron made a speech in which he described extremist
Islamic organisations and the
British National Party as "mirror images" to each other, both
preaching "creeds of pure hatred".[166]
Cameron is listed as being a supporter of
Unite Against Fascism.[167]
Cameron, in late 2009, urged the
Lib Dems to join the Conservatives in a new "national movement"
arguing there was "barely a cigarette paper" between them on a large
number of issues. The invitation was rejected by the Liberal Democrat
leader,
Nick Clegg, who attacked Cameron at the start of his party's annual
conference in Bournemouth, saying that the Conservatives were totally
different from his party and that the Lib Dems were the true
"progressives" in UK politics.[168]
Allegations of social élitism
Cameron speaking at a Conservative reception in 2008
While
Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron has been accused of
reliance on "old-boy networks"[169]
and attacked by his party for the imposition of selective shortlists of
prospective parliamentary candidates.[129]
The Guardian has accused Cameron of relying on "the most
prestigious of old-boy networks in his attempt to return the
Tories to
power", pointing out that three members of his
shadow cabinet and 15 members of his
front bench team were "Old
Etonians".[169]
Similarly,
The Sunday Times has commented that "David Cameron has more
Etonians around him than any leader since
Macmillan" and asked whether he can "represent Britain from such a
narrow base."[170]
Former Labour cabinet minister
Hazel Blears has said of Cameron, "You have to wonder about a man
who surrounds himself with so many people who went to the same school.
I'm pretty sure I don't want 21st-century Britain run by people who went
to just one school."[171]
Some supporters of the party have accused Cameron's government of
cronyism on the
front benches, with
Sir
Tom Cowie,
working-class founder of
Arriva
and former Conservative donor, ceasing his donations in August 2007 due
to disillusionment with Cameron's leadership, saying, "the Tory party
seems to be run now by Old Etonians and they don't seem to understand
how other people live." In reply, Shadow Foreign Secretary
William Hague said when a party was changing, "there will always be
people who are uncomfortable with that process".[172]
In a response to Cameron at
Prime Minister's Questions in December 2009,
Gordon Brown addressed the Conservative Party's
inheritance tax policy, saying it "seems to have been dreamed up on
the playing fields of Eton". This led to open discussion of "class
war" by the mainstream media and leading politicians of both major
parties, with speculation that the
2010 general election campaign would see the Labour Party highlight
the backgrounds of senior Conservative politicians.[173][174]
Raising
teaching standards
At the launch of the Conservative Party's education
manifesto in January 2010, Cameron declared an admiration for the
"brazenly elitist" approach to education of countries such as
Singapore and
South Korea and expressed a desire to "elevate the status of
teaching in our country". He suggested the adoption of more stringent
criteria for entry to teaching and offered repayment of the loans of
maths and science graduates obtaining first or 2.1 degrees from "good"
universities. Wes Streeting, president of the
National Union of Students, said "The message that the Conservatives
are sending to the majority of students is that if you didn't go to a
university attended by members of the Shadow Cabinet, they don't believe
you're worth as much." In response to the manifesto as a whole, Chris
Keates, head of teaching union
NASUWT,
said teachers would be left "shocked, dismayed and demoralised" and
warned of the potential for
strikes as a result.[175][176][177]
South Africa
In April 2009,
The Independent reported that in 1989, while
Nelson Mandela remained imprisoned under the
apartheid régime, David Cameron had accepted a trip to South Africa
paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby firm. A spokesperson for Cameron
responded by saying that the Conservative Party was at that time opposed
to
sanctions against South Africa and that his trip was a fact-finding
mission. However, the newspaper reported that Cameron's then superior at
Conservative Research Department called the trip "jolly", saying that
"it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job.
The
Botha regime was attempting to make itself look less horrible, but I
don't regard it as having been of the faintest political consequence."
Cameron distanced himself from his party's history of opposing sanctions
against the regime. He was criticised by Labour MP
Peter Hain, himself an anti-apartheid campaigner.[178]
Turkey and Israel
In a speech in
Ankara
in July 2010, Cameron stated unequivocally his support for Turkey's
accession to the EU, citing economic, security and political
considerations, and claimed that those who opposed Turkish membership
were driven by "protectionism, narrow nationalism or prejudice".[179][180]
In that speech, he was also critical of Israeli action during the
Gaza flotilla raid and its Gaza policy, and repeated his opinion
that Israel had turned Gaza into a "prison camp",[179]
having previously referred to Gaza as "a giant open prison".[181]
These views were met with mixed reactions.[182][183][184]
At the end of May 2011, Cameron stepped down as patron of the
Jewish National Fund[185][186]
the first British prime minister not to be patron of the charity in the
110 years of its existence.[187]
Despite these events David Cameron is perhaps the most outspoken
supporter of Israel in a whole generation of PMs. In a speech in 2011
Cameron expressed: "You have a Prime Minister whose commitment and
determination to work for peace in Israel is deep and strong. Britain
will continue to push for peace, but will always stand up for Israel
against those who wish her harm". Mr Cameron said he wanted to reaffirm
his "unshakable" belief in Israel within the same message.[188]
He also voiced his opposition to the Goldstone Report, claiming it had
been biased against Israel and not enough blame had been placed on
Hamas.
Allegations of recreational drug use
During the leadership election, allegations were made that Cameron
had used
cannabis and
cocaine
recreationally before becoming an MP.[189]
Pressed on this point during the BBC programme
Question Time, Cameron expressed the view that everybody was
allowed to "err and stray" in their past.[190]
During his 2005 Conservative leadership campaign he addressed the
question of drug consumption by remarking that "I did lots of things
before I came into politics which I shouldn't have done. We all did."[190]
Cameron and
Andy Coulson
In 2007 Cameron appointed
Andy Coulson, former editor of the
News of the World as his director of communications. Coulson had
resigned as the paper's editor following the conviction of a reporter in
relation to
illegal phone hacking, although stating that he knew nothing about
it.[191][192]
In June 2010
Downing Street confirmed Coulson's annual salary as £140,000, the
highest pay of any special adviser to UK Government.[193]
In January 2011 Coulson left his post, saying coverage of the phone
hacking scandal was making it difficult to give his best to the job.[191]
In July 2011 he was arrested and questioned by police in connection with
further allegations of illegal activities at the News of the World, and
released on bail. Despite a call to apologise for hiring Coulson by the
leader of the opposition
Ed Miliband, Cameron defended the appointment, saying that he had
taken a conscious choice to give someone who had screwed up a second
chance.[194][195]
On 20 July, in a special parliamentary session at the
House of Commons, arranged to discuss the
News of the World phone hacking scandal, Cameron said that he
"regretted the furore" that had resulted from his appointment of
Coulson, and that "with hindsight" he would not have hired him.[196][197]
Coulson was detained and charged with perjury by
Strathclyde Police on 30 May 2012.[198][199]
Cameron and
Lord Ashcroft
In June 2012, shortly before a major Tory rebellion on
House of Lords reform,[200]
journalist
Peter Oborne credited
Lord Ashcroft, owner of both the
ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome website with "stopping the
Coalition working" by moving policy on Europe, welfare, education,
taxation to the right.[201]
Prior to the 2010 election, Cameron gave Ashcroft a significant role in
the election campaign but no post-election reward in the form of
ministerial job.[201]
According to Oborne, Ashcroft, a "brutal critic of the Coalition from
the start" has established “megaphone presence” in the on-line media and
Tories now blame the LibDems for blocking economic and welfare system
reform.[201]
Oborne says the parties have separate and contradictory agendas – as
exemplified by
Michael Gove's education reforms intended for Tory ears only – and
don't even consult each other.[201]
He believes Cameron's philosophy of liberal conservatism has been
destroyed by "coordinated attacks on the Coalition" and "the two parties
are no longer trying to pretend that they are governing together."[201]
Standing in
opinion polls
In the first month of Cameron's leadership, the Conservative Party's
standing in opinion polls rose, with several pollsters placing it ahead
of the ruling
Labour Party. While the Conservative and Labour Parties drew even in
early spring 2006, following the
May 2006 local elections various polls once again generally showed
Conservative leads.[202][203]
When
Gordon Brown became
Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, Labour moved ahead and its ratings
grew steadily at Cameron's expense, an
ICM poll[204]
in July showing Labour with a seven point lead in the wake of
controversies over his policies. An ICM poll[205][206]
in September saw Cameron rated the least popular of the three main party
leaders. A
YouGov poll for Channel 4[207]
one week later, after the Labour Party Conference, extended the Labour
lead to 11 points, prompting further speculation of an early election.
Following the Conservative Party Conference in the first week of
October 2007, the Conservatives drew level with Labour[208]
When Brown declared he would not call an election for the autumn,[209]
a decline in his and Labour's standings followed. At the end of the year
a series of polls showed improved support for the Conservatives[210]
giving them an 11 point lead over Labour. This decreased slightly in
early 2008,[211]
and in March the Conservatives had their largest lead in opinion polls
since October 1987, at 16 points.[212]
In May 2008, following the worst local election performance from the
Labour Party in 40 years, the Conservative lead was up to 26 points, the
largest since 1968.[213]
In December 2008, a
ComRes
poll showed the Conservative lead had decreased dramatically
[214]
though by February 2009 it had recovered to reach 12 points.[215]
A period of relative stability in the polls was broken in mid-December
2009 and by January 2010 some polls were predicting a
hung parliament[216][217]
A YouGov
poll on party leaders conducted on 9–10 June 2011 found 44% of the
electorate thought he was doing well and 50% thought he was doing badly,
whilst 38% thought he would be the best PM, 23% preferred
Ed Miliband and 35% didn't know.[218]
Until his veto on treaty changes to the European Union in December
2011 amid the Eurozone crisis, most opinion polls that year had shown a
slim Labour lead. However, many opinion polls showed that the majority
of voters felt that Cameron made the right decision,[219]
Subsequent opinion polls have shown a narrow lead for the Conservatives
ahead of Labour.[220]
Personal life
Samantha Gwendoline Sheffield, the daughter of
Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, 8th Baronet and Annabel Lucy
Veronica Jones (now
Viscountess Astor), was a
Marlborough College school friend of Cameron's sister Clare. The
couple first met at a party at the Cameron's family house when Samantha
was 16.[221]
After graduating from Bristol School of Creative Arts, Clare invited
Samantha on a Cameron family holiday in
Tuscany,
Italy,
where the couple's romance started.[222]
They married on 1 June 1996 at the Church of St. Augustine of
Canterbury,
East Hendred,
Oxfordshire, five years before he became an MP.[5]
The Camerons have had four children. Their first child, Ivan Reginald
Ian, was born on 8 April 2002 in
Hammersmith and Fulham, London,[223]
with a rare combination of
cerebral palsy and a form of severe
epilepsy called
Ohtahara syndrome, requiring round-the-clock care. Recalling the
receipt of this news, Cameron is quoted as saying: "The news hits you
like a freight train...You are depressed for a while because you are
grieving for the difference between your hopes and the reality. But then
you get over that, because he's wonderful."[224]
Ivan died at
St Mary's Hospital,
Paddington, London, on 25 February 2009, aged six.[225]
David and Samantha Cameron have two daughters, Nancy Gwen[226]
(born 2004), and Florence Rose Endellion (born 24 August 2010),[227]
and a son, Arthur Elwen (born 2006).[228][229]
Cameron took
paternity leave when his second son was born, and this decision
received broad coverage.[230]
It was also stated that Cameron would be taking paternity leave after
his second daughter was born.[227]
His second daughter, Florence Rose Endellion, was born on 24 August
2010, three weeks prematurely, while the family was on holiday in
Cornwall. Her third given name, Endellion, is taken from the village
of
St Endellion near where the Camerons were holidaying.[231][232]
A
Daily Mail article from June 2007 quoted
Sunday Times Rich List compiler
Philip Beresford, who had valued the
Conservative Leader for the first time, as saying: "I put the
combined family wealth of David and Samantha Cameron at £30 million
plus. Both sides of the family are extremely wealthy."[233]
Another estimate is £3.2 million, though
this figure excludes the million-pound legacies Cameron is expected to
inherit from both sides of his family.[234][235]
In early May 2008, David Cameron decided to enrol his daughter Nancy
at a
State school. The Camerons had been attending its associated church,[236]
which is near the Cameron family home in
North Kensington, for three years.[237]
Cameron's constituency home is in
Dean, Oxfordshire, and the Camerons are key members of the
Chipping Norton set.[238]
On 8 September 2010 it was announced that Cameron would miss
Prime Minister's Questions in order to fly to
southern France to see his father, Ian Cameron, who had suffered a
stroke
with coronary complications. Later that day, with David and other family
members at his bedside, Ian died.[239][240]
On 17 September 2010, Cameron attended a private ceremony for the
funeral of his father in
Berkshire, which prevented him from hearing the address of
The Pope to
Westminster Hall, an occasion he would otherwise have attended.[241]
Cameron supports
Aston Villa Football Club.[242]
Cycling
He regularly uses his bicycle to commute to work. In early 2006 he
was photographed cycling to work followed by his driver in a car
carrying his belongings. His Conservative Party spokesperson
subsequently said that this was a regular arrangement for Cameron at the
time.[243]
Cameron's bicycle was stolen in May 2009 while he was shopping. It was
recovered with the aid of
The Sunday Mirror.[244]
His bicycle has since been stolen again from near his house.[245]
He is an occasional jogger and has raised funds for charities by taking
part in the Oxford 5K and the
Great Brook Run.[246][247]
Faith
Speaking of his religious beliefs, Cameron has said: "I've a sort of
fairly classic
Church of England faith".[248]
He states that his politics "is not faith-driven", adding: "I am a
Christian, I go to church, I believe in God, but I do not have a
direct line."[249]
On religious faith in general he has said: "I do think that organised
religion can get things wrong but the Church of England and the other
churches do play a very important role in society."[248]
Questioned as to whether his faith had ever been tested, Cameron
spoke of the birth of his severely disabled eldest son, saying: "You ask
yourself, 'If there is a God, why can anything like this happen?'" He
went on to state that in some ways the experience had "strengthened" his
beliefs.[249]
Styles
- David Cameron
Esq (1966–2001)
- David Cameron Esq
MP
(2001–2005)
-
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP (2005–)
Honours
Ancestry
Among Cameron's ancestors is King
William IV, who is his 5-times great-grandfather through an
illegitimate daughter who was the mother of Agnes Duff,
Countess Fife, who is shown in the ancestry chart below.[citation
needed]