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David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton, PC (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and latterly as Foreign Secretary under Rishi Sunak from November 2023 to July 2024.
- Overview
- Early life and start in politics
- Cameron’s revitalization of the Conservatives
David Cameron (born October 9, 1966, London, England) British Conservative Party leader who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom (2010–16).
Cameron, a descendant of King William IV, was born into a family with both wealth and an aristocratic pedigree. He attended Eton College and Brasenose College, Oxford, from which he graduated (1988) with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. After Oxford he joined the Conservative Party Research Department. In 1992 he became a special adviser to Norman Lamont, then chancellor of the Exchequer, and the following year he undertook the same role for Michael Howard, then home secretary. Cameron joined the media company Carlton Communications in 1994 as director of corporate affairs. He stayed at Carlton until he entered Parliament in 2001 as MP for Witney, northwest of London.
Cameron—young, moderate, and charismatic—quickly attracted attention as the leading member of a new generation of Conservatives. He was widely compared to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had acquired a similar reputation when he entered Parliament 18 years earlier. After just two years as an MP, Cameron was appointed to his party’s “front bench”—making him a leading Conservative spokesman in the House of Commons. In 2004 Howard, by then party leader, appointed his young protégé to the post of head of policy coordination, which put Cameron in charge of preparing the Conservatives’ 2005 election manifesto. The party, however, suffered a heavy defeat at the polls, provoking Howard’s resignation. Cameron’s self-assured speech at the party’s annual conference in October 2005 transformed his reputation, and he was subsequently elected Conservative leader.
Cameron sought to modernize the party and shed its right-wing image. He announced that economic stability and strong public services would take priority over tax cuts in the next Conservative government. Under his leadership the party grew in popularity and placed first in the 2006 local elections; it was the Conservatives’ best showing at the polls in some 15 years.
In the immediate aftermath of Gordon Brown’s succeeding Blair as Labour leader and prime minister in 2007, the Conservatives began to trail in the polls, encouraging the prime minister to consider calling a snap election to capitalize on Labour’s momentum. By the time Labour held its party conference in September, it had taken a double-digit lead over the Conservatives. But, at the Conservative Party conference in early October, Cameron made an impressive speech, talking for more than an hour without a script. In reference to the upcoming European Union summit in Lisbon to negotiate a treaty on reform, Cameron lambasted Brown for ruling out a referendum on an agreement (contrary to the prime minister’s commitment to hold one on a European constitution). In addition to other issues, Cameron also was critical of Labour’s performance on crime and with regard to the National Health Service (NHS). Most daringly, despite trailing in the polls, he goaded the prime minister to call an election:
So, Mr Brown, what’s it going to be? Why don’t you go ahead and call that election? Let the people pass judgement on 10 years of broken promises. Let people decide who’s really making the arguments about the future of our country. Let people decide who can make the changes that we really need in our country. Call that election. We will fight. Britain will win.
The performance won wide praise, and in its aftermath Brown announced that there would be no general election before 2009. Later that month, after Brown had attended the EU summit in Lisbon, at which the 27 member countries agreed on the detailed wording of the treaty, Cameron followed up with his earlier criticism, arguing that Brown had “absolutely no democratic mandate to sign this without a referendum.” By December the Conservatives had taken a clear lead in the opinion polls, ahead of Labour by up to 13 percent—the biggest lead for the Conservatives since 1989.
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