When David Cameron resigned as Britain’s prime minister after losing the Brexit vote in 2016, he offered members of Parliament a rueful valedictory: “I was the future once.” Few, perhaps including Mr. Cameron himself, expected to see him return.
And yet on Monday morning, there he was, striding up the leaf-strewn driveway of 10 Downing Street to accept an appointment as foreign secretary from the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
For Mr. Sunak, who has presented himself as a change agent, it is not just a surprising choice, but also a deeply counterintuitive one.
Mr. Cameron is nothing if not a bridge to the Conservative past.
The decisions he made, and the policies he pursued, are vexing Mr. Sunak’s government today, a dubious inheritance that helps explain the erratic course of a prime minister in political trouble.
Persons:
David Cameron, Cameron, Rishi Sunak, Cameron’s, Sunak
Organizations:
Conservative, European Union