British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed former Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary today, in a surprising move during a cabinet reshuffle.
David William Donald Cameron was born in Newbury, London, in 1966. He studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1988 with first-class honors. Cameron began his political career in 1988 as a researcher in the Conservative Party's research unit. He first ran for Parliament in 1997 for the Stafford constituency but lost the election. He returned to run in 2001 for the Witney constituency, where he was successful. He quickly rose to become the Conservative Party's Head of Policy Coordination during the 2005 election campaign. He was elected party leader by the end of 2005 and managed to win the election in 2010, becoming the youngest Prime Minister in Britain in nearly 200 years.
Despite Cameron's achievements during his six years in power, his legacy will forever be associated with the Brexit vote. This is a strange trait for a political leader who once pledged to stop his party from "continuously questioning Europe," and it is not the manner in which he wished to exit the historical stage. Cameron, as a pragmatist in his own way, claimed to be skeptical of ideology, always able to trim his stance to fit the different times. This adaptability allowed him to ally with his political opponents, particularly with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, forming the first coalition government since the war; he later shared the stage with Labour figures during the referendum campaign.
However, this characteristic ultimately bred skepticism and outright hostility among his ideological pure Conservative colleagues, who questioned what he truly stood for, if there was anything at all. His wealthy background also became another source of resentment among some in his party, who preferred their leaders to have attended state schools and have rags-to-riches stories like Thatcher and Major. Cameron was the first Conservative leader since the early 1960s to be educated at Eton, one of the most expensive private schools in Britain. His ancestry can be traced back to King William IV, making him a distant cousin of the Queen.
Cameron did not hide his privileged background, stating he wished that everyone in Britain could enjoy the benefits he had enjoyed in his life. In December 2005, Cameron described himself, saying, "I am a practical and pragmatic man; I know where I want to get to, but I do not adhere ideologically to one specific approach." He also stated in August 2008, "I will be a radical social reformer just as Thatcher was an economic reformer."
