David Cameron has decided he doesn’t want to serve in Rishi Sunak’s shadow cabinet following the devastating Tory loss at last week’s General Election.
After nine months as the foreign secretary, the ex-PM – now formally known as Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton – is stepping back from frontbench politics and will stick to serving as a peer in the House of Lords.
His resignation has prompted Sunak to name former deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell to the top shadow post.
The Conservative leader himself is due to step down from his post when a leadership contest finds his replacement, but has formed his final ‘interim’ shadow cabinet in the meantime.
A record number of his cabinet ministers lost their seats at the last election, and he had a record low number of Conservative MPs to choose from.
- James Cartlidge is the shadow defence secretary, after Grant Shapps lost his seat
- Ed Argar is the shadow justice secretary, after Alex Chalk lost his seat
- Damian Hinds is the shadow education secretary, after Gillian Keegan lost her seat
- Julia Lopez is the shadow culture secretary, after Lucy Frazer lost her seat
- Helen Whately is the shadow transport secretary, after Mark Harper lost his seat
- Andrew Griffith is the shadow science and technology secretary, after Michelle Donelan lost her seat
- Chris Philp is the shadow Leader of the House of Commons, after Penny Mordaunt lost her seat
- Andrew Bowie is the shadow veterans minister, after Johnny Mercer lost his seat
- Alex Burghart is the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, after Chris Heaton-Harris lost his seat
- Lord Davies is the shadow Wales secretary after David TC Davies lost his seat – along with every other Conservative MP in Wales
Richard Holden has also resigned as Conservative chairman following the worst election result in the party’s 200-year history, with Richard Fuller replacing him in the role on an interim basis.
Lord Cameron spent four and a half years in opposition to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before becoming prime minister after the 2010 election.
His resignation may suggest a reluctance to return to the often frustrating job of holding others to account for their decisions in government rather than making any himself.
In a post on the social media site X, he said the decision was made due to the need to ‘shadow the new Foreign Secretary from the Commons’.
He added: ‘As a committed Conservative I will continue to support the Party and help where I can as we rebuild from the very disappointing election result.’
Westminster was largely stunned by his appointment as foreign secretary last November, more than seven years after he stepped down as PM in the wake of the Brexit referendum.
But Cameron, who had expressed enthusiasm for taking on the role previously, relished the chance to get directly involved in meaty political issues again.
His international visits included Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Israel, the Falkland Islands and Paraguay during his term in office.
Memorably, he was due to be met with enormous welcome banners and Union Flag bunting in the Albanian capital of Tirana on May 22 when he cut his trip short to return home for Rishi Sunak’s General Election announcement.
And he remained behind in France to pose alongside world leaders following the D-Day ceremony on June 6, when Sunak flew back to the UK in one of the most catastrophic mistakes of his campaign.
Having stepped back from frontline politics, Cameron will remain in the House of Lords for life.
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