Rishi Sunak bringing ex-PM David Cameron back is dramatic – but also dangerous
And how the Cabinet table insist his 'huge amount of experience at a time of war' will be 'crucial'
AS big reveals go, it does not get more dramatic than Rishi Sunak’s pre-breakfast sacking of Suella Braverman and the Lazarus-like return of former Prime Minister David Cameron.
Such is the acrimony between Suella and Rishi, the PM fired the Home Secretary over the phone and there was no traditional exchange of nicety letters.
She was a dead woman walking after going public with a plan to ban charities handing out tents to the homeless — and her rogue attack last Thursday on the Metropolitan Police sealed her fate.
No10 wasted no time in putting the boot in yesterday, admitting “clearly there was an issue around language” and in a further dig saying it was time for a “united top team”.
For her part, Braverman leaves armed with a charge sheet of dither and delay on small boats by Sunak that she intends to go public with in the coming days.
Major coup
No 10 is braced for her retaliation, and with good reason — her allies say the evidence is “damning”.
So the long-awaited Government reshuffle would have already been explosive enough, but when those familiar pink cheeks were spotted getting out of an armoured Land Rover, Westminster went into meltdown.
“Call Me Dave” had been telling pals he was “bored s**tless” for years, with a get-rich-quick attempt ending in the Greensill lobbying scandal.
He had also been complaining to friends that the lucrative after-dinner speaking circuit had dried up.
But it was not until late last week that he took up Sunak’s offer of a shock return to frontline politics, spending the weekend shredding his outside interests ahead of being appointed to the Lords.
The pair had been speaking more and more, not least when Cameron made an 11th-hour plea directly to his successor not to scrap HS2
Quite where all this leaves Sunak’s conference pledge to be a candidate of change remains to be seen.
But that is playing second fiddle to No10’s delight in pulling off what they see as a major coup.
Finally there is someone who has actually won an election or a Tory leadership ballot at the Cabinet table.
And they insist that Lord Dave’s “huge amount of experience at a time of war in Europe and conflict in the Middle East” will be “crucial”.
No 10 insiders point to the fact that the PM’s phone was “inundated” yesterday with texts from fellow world leaders welcoming the appointment.
It will also free up the PM, who has spent the past month distracted by the Middle East, to focus more on the domestic agenda as election day nears.
While Sunak played up Lord Dave’s decades of experience and big-hitter status, he is quietly ignoring the inconvenient parts of the hire.
His press secretary insisted last night that the PM “wasn’t talking about personalities” in his blistering conference speech attack that suggested “Britain has suffered a failed 30-year consensus”.
Yet while dramatic, bringing back Cameron is not a decision without massive dangers for his administration.
Cameron was the poster boy for Remain and some argue his storming off in 2016 when he didn’t like the Brexit result is part of the reason the Tories got into such a mess for so many years.
Downing Street’s attempts to paint Lord Dave as a born-again Brexiteer last night were unconvincing, but he has publicly promised to be a “team player”.
Yet to bring him back on the same day that the leading light of the Tory right is sent to the backbenches is a big signal from the centre on the direction of travel No 10 now wants to go.
Throw into the mix that many Cameron-era aides, such as the likes of Laura Trott, Richard Holden and Oliver Dowden now litter the Cabinet and you can see why Tory MPs see this as a massive tack toward the centre ground.
Many on the right have never forgiven Cameron’s behaviour during his “Project Fear” referendum campaign, while some on the Tory left think his catastrophic error of judgment was letting the vote ever take place.
And his foreign policy record is chequered, to say the least.
The lack of preparation for Brexit ahead of the 2016 vote was a national scandal and his “Golden Era” of close relations with China is now known in Whitehall as the “Golden Error”.
Pro-Israel MPs were already raising eyebrows over his branding of Gaza as an “open-air prison” in 2012, given the current tensions in the region.
While his contentious military action in Libya and failed attempts to bomb Syria blot his copybook, he was in charge when the RAF joined an international coalition to rout IS.
And he got one very, very big call right: The decision to start training Ukrainian troops in 2015.
Kind of showdown
Defenders of Cameron also point out he has an extremely good relationship with Indian PM Narendra Modi at a time when testy trade talks appear deadlocked.
But for every person praising the hire, there are equal public criticisms.
Ex-Business Secretary Sir Simon Clarke’s tortured football analogy summed it up best: “Some controversial choices here from the manager, putting it very mildly.
“Never wise to lack options on the right wing — the squad risks being badly unbalanced.”
Yet even arch David Cameron defender Lord Vaizey admitted: “There’s now going to be a kind of showdown between the right around Suella Braverman and the mainstream Conservative Party.”
This is not the sort of reshuffle that can be judged on the day, and its fallout will be a white-knuckle time for No 10.
At least one MP claimed to have put in a letter of no confidence in the PM last night. Sunak will be praying others do not get the same idea.