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The Right Honourable
David Cameron
MP
Cameron at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010Incumbent Assumed office
11 May 2010Monarch Elizabeth II Deputy Nick Clegg Preceded by Gordon Brown In office
6 December 2005 – 11 May 2010Monarch Elizabeth II Prime Minister Tony Blair
Gordon BrownPreceded by Michael Howard Succeeded by Harriet Harman Incumbent Assumed office
6 December 2005Preceded by Michael Howard In office
6 May 2005 – 6 December 2005Leader Michael Howard Preceded by Tim Yeo Succeeded by David Willetts
for WitneyIncumbent Assumed office
7 June 2001Preceded by Shaun Woodward Majority 22,740 (39.4%) Born 9 October 1966 (age 43)
London, England,
United KingdomNationality British Political party Conservative Spouse(s) Samantha Sheffield (m. 1996–present) Children Ivan Reginald Ian (deceased)
Nancy Gwen
Arthur Elwen
Florence Rose EndellionResidence 10 Downing Street (Official) Alma mater Brasenose College, Oxford Religion Anglican Signature Website Conservative Party website David William Donald Cameron (pronounced /ˈkæm(ə)rən/; born 9 October 1966) is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, and Leader of the Conservative Party. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney.
Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.
A first candidacy for Parliament at Stafford in 1997 ended in defeat, but Cameron was elected in 2001 as the Member of Parliament for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of policy co-ordination during the 2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a young, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Conservative leadership election in 2005.[1]
In the 2010 general election held on 6 May, the Conservatives gained a plurality of seats in a hung parliament and Cameron was appointed Prime Minister on 11 May 2010, at the head of a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. At the age of 43, Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool 198 years earlier.[2] The Cameron Ministry is the first coalition government in the United Kingdom since the Second World War.
Contents
Family
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article titled Family of David Cameron. (Discuss) David Cameron is the younger son of the stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010[3]) and his wife Mary Fleur (née Mount, born 1934,[4] a retired Justice of the peace, daughter of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet).[5] His late father, Ian, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Cameron's parents married on 20 October 1962.[4] He was born in London, and brought up in Peasemore, Berkshire.[6] Cameron has a brother, Allan Alexander (born 1963, a barrister and QC)[7] and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971).[4][8] His father was born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and died near Toulon in France on 8 September 2010.[9] Blairmore was built by his great-great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes,[10] who had made a fortune in the grain business in Chicago, and had returned to Scotland in the 1880s.[11] The Cameron family is a member of the ancient Scottish Clan Cameron seated in the Inverness area of the Scottish Highlands.[12]
Ancestors in the aristocracy and politics
Cameron is a descendant of King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. This illegitimate line consists of five generations of women on his father's maternal side starting with Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll née FitzClarence, William and Jordan's sixth child,[13] through to the fifth female generation Enid Agnes Maud Levita. His father's maternal grandmother, Stephanie Levita, daughter of Sir Alfred Cooper and Lady Agnes Duff (sister of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife) and was a sister of Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, GCMG, DSO, PC, Conservative statesman and author.[14] His paternal grandmother, Enid Levita, who married secondly a younger son of 1st Baron Manton,[15] was the niece of Sir Cecil Levita, KCVO CBE, Chairman of London County Council in 1928. Through the Mantons, Cameron also has kinship with Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, KBE, PC,[16] Conservative Chief Whip in the House of Lords 1991–93 and Treasurer of the Conservative Party from 2003.[nb 1] Cameron's maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, an army officer and the High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet, CBE, Conservative MP for Newbury 1918–1922. Lady Ida Matilde Alice Feilding, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was the daughter of William Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh, GCH, PC, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber.[18] He is also a great × 4 great-nephew of Sir James Hanway Plumridge, KCB.[19]
Ancestors in finance
Cameron's forebears have a long history in finance. His father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon, in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron's ancestors, including David's grandfather and great-grandfather,[8] and was a director of estate agent John D Wood. His great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German-Jewish financier who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[20] His wife, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was a descendant of the wealthy Danish Jewish Rée family.[21][22] One of Emile's sons, Arthur Francis Levita (d.1910) (brother of Sir Cecil Levita),[23] of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, together with great-great-grandfather Sir Ewen Cameron,[12] London head of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, played key roles in arranging loans supplied by the Rothschilds to the Japanese central banker (later Prime Minister) Takahashi Korekiyo for the financing of the Japanese Government in the Russo-Japanese war.[24] Another great-grandfather, Ewen Allan Cameron, was senior partner of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers and served on the Council for Foreign Bondholders,[25] and the Committee for Chinese Bondholders (set up by the then-Governor of the Bank of England Montagu Norman in November 1935).[26]
Notable living relations
Cameron is the nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004) Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen since 1955,[27] and former chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham born documentary film-maker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.[28] Cameron's other notable relations include Adam Hart-Davis, Duff Hart-Davis,[29] Boris Johnson who is the Conservative Mayor of London; Jo Johnson who is the Conservative MP for Orpington and Rachel Johnson (8th cousins),[30] Ferdinand Mount (Formerly Sir Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet; Anthony Powell, CH, CBE; John Julius Norwich, 2nd Viscount Norwich, CVO; The Hon. Artemis Cooper and Allegra Huston.[30] Cary Elwes, Damian Elwes and Cassian Elwes are his fourth cousins.[31]
Education
From the age of seven, Cameron was educated at two independent schools: at Heatherdown Preparatory School at Winkfield, in Berkshire, which counted Prince Andrew and Prince Edward among its alumni. Cameron's academic ascent at Heatherdown was so great that he entered its top academic class almost two years early.[32] At the age of thirteen, he went on to Eton College in Berkshire, following his father and elder brother.[33] Eton is often described as the most famous independent school in the world,[34] and "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".[35] His early interest was in art. Cameron was in trouble as a teenager, six weeks before taking his O-levels, when he was named as having smoked cannabis.[1] Because he admitted the offence and had not been involved in selling drugs, he was not expelled, but he was fined, prevented from leaving school grounds, and given a "Georgic" (a punishment which involved copying 500 lines of Latin text).[36]
Cameron recovered from this episode and passed 12 O-levels, and then studied three A-Levels in History of Art, History and Economics with Politics. He obtained three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics.[37] He then stayed on to sit the entrance exam for the University of Oxford, which was sat the following autumn. He passed, did well at interview, and was given a place at Brasenose College, his first choice.[38]
After finally leaving Eton just before Christmas 1984, Cameron had nine months of a gap year before going up to Oxford. In January he began work as a researcher for Tim Rathbone, Conservative MP for Lewes and his godfather, in his Parliamentary office. He was there only for three months, but used the time to attend debates in the House of Commons.[39] Through his father, he was then employed for a further three months in Hong Kong by Jardine Matheson as a 'ship jumper', an administrative post for which no experience was needed but which gave him some experience of work.[40]
Returning from Hong Kong he visited Moscow and a Yalta beach in the then Soviet Union, and was at one point approached by two Russian men speaking fluent English. Cameron was later told by one of his professors that it was 'definitely an attempt' by the KGB to recruit him.[41]
Cameron then studied at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford, where he read for a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). His tutor at Oxford, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, described him as "one of the ablest"[42] students he has taught, with "moderate and sensible Conservative" political views.[8] When commenting in 2006 on his former pupil's ideas about a "bill of rights" to replace the Human Rights Act, however, Professor Bogdanor, himself a Liberal Democrat, said, "I think he is very confused. I've read his speech and it's filled with contradictions. There are one or two good things in it but one glimpses them, as it were, through a mist of misunderstanding".[43]
While at Oxford, Cameron was captain of Brasenose College's tennis team.[8] He was also a member of the student dining society the Bullingdon Club, which has a reputation for an outlandish drinking culture associated with boisterous behaviour and damaging property.[44] A photograph showing Cameron in a tailcoat with other members of the club, including Boris Johnson, surfaced in 2007, but was later withdrawn by the copyright holder.[45] Cameron's period in the Bullingdon Club is examined in the Channel 4 docu-drama When Boris Met Dave broadcast on 7 October 2009.[46] He also belonged to the Octagon Club,[44] another dining society. Cameron graduated in 1988 with a first class honours degree.[47] Cameron is still in touch with many of his former Oxford classmates, including Boris Johnson and close family friend, the Reverend James Hand.[48]
Early political career
Conservative Research Department
After graduation, Cameron worked for the Conservative Research Department between September 1988[49] and 1993. A feature on Cameron in The Mail on Sunday on 18 March 2007 reported that on the day he was due to attend a job interview at Conservative Central Office, a phone call was received from Buckingham Palace. The male caller stated, "I understand you are to see David Cameron. I've tried everything I can to dissuade him from wasting his time on politics but I have failed. I am ringing to tell you that you are about to meet a truly remarkable young man."[50]
In 1991, Cameron was seconded to Downing Street to work on briefing John Major for his then bi-weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions. One newspaper gave Cameron the credit for "sharper ... despatch box performances" by Major,[51] which included highlighting for Major "a dreadful piece of doublespeak" by Tony Blair (then the Labour Employment spokesman) over the effect of a national minimum wage.[52] He became head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department, and in August 1991 was tipped to follow Judith Chaplin as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister.[53]
Cameron lost out, however, to Jonathan Hill, who was appointed in March 1992. He was given the responsibility for briefing John Major for his press conferences during the 1992 general election.[54] During the campaign, Cameron was one of the young "brat pack" of party strategists who worked between 12 and 20 hours a day, sleeping in the house of Alan Duncan in Gayfere Street, Westminster, which had been Major's campaign headquarters during his bid for the Conservative leadership.[55] Cameron headed the economic section; it was while working on this campaign that Cameron first worked closely with Steve Hilton, who was later to become Director of Strategy during his party leadership.[56] The strain of getting up at 4:45 am every day was reported to have led Cameron to decide to leave politics in favour of journalism.[57]
Special adviser
The Conservatives' unexpected success in the 1992 election led Cameron to hit back at older party members who had criticised him and his colleagues. He was quoted as saying, the day after the election, "whatever people say about us, we got the campaign right," and that they had listened to their campaign workers on the ground rather than the newspapers. He revealed he had led other members of the team across Smith Square to jeer at Transport House, the former Labour headquarters.[58] Cameron was rewarded with a promotion to Special Advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont.[59]
Cameron was working for Lamont at the time of Black Wednesday, when pressure from currency speculators forced the Pound sterling out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Cameron, who was unknown to the public at the time, can be spotted at Lamont's side in news film of the latter's announcement of British withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism that evening. At the 1992 Conservative Party conference in October, Cameron had a tough time trying to arrange to brief the speakers in the economic debate, having to resort to putting messages on the internal television system imploring the mover of the motion, Patricia Morris, to contact him.[60] Later that month Cameron joined a delegation of Special Advisers who visited Germany to build better relations with the Christian Democratic Union; he was reported to be "still smarting" over the Bundesbank's contribution to the economic crisis.[61]
Cameron's boss Norman Lamont fell out with John Major after Black Wednesday and became highly unpopular with the public. Taxes needed to be raised in the 1993 budget, and Cameron fed the options Lamont was considering through to Conservative Central Office for their political acceptability to be assessed.[62] However, Lamont's unpopularity did not necessarily affect Cameron: he was considered as a potential "kamikaze" candidate for the Newbury by-election, which included the area where he grew up.[63] However, Cameron decided not to stand.
During the by-election, Lamont gave the response "Je ne regrette rien" to a question about whether he most regretted claiming to see "the green shoots of recovery" or admitted "singing in his bath" with happiness at leaving the ERM. Cameron was identified by one journalist as having inspired this gaffe; it was speculated that the heavy Conservative defeat in Newbury may have cost Cameron his chance of becoming Chancellor himself (even though as he was not a Member of Parliament he could not have been).[64] Lamont was sacked at the end of May 1993, and decided not to write the usual letter of resignation; Cameron was given the responsibility to issue to the press a statement of self-justification.[65]
Home Office
After Lamont was sacked, Cameron remained at the Treasury for less than a month before being specifically recruited by Home Secretary Michael Howard; it was commented that he was still "very much in favour".[66] It was later reported that many at the Treasury would have preferred Cameron to carry on.[67] At the beginning of September 1993, Cameron applied to go on Conservative Central Office's list of Parliamentary candidates.[68]
According to Derek Lewis, then Director-General of Her Majesty's Prison Service, Cameron showed him a "his and hers list" of proposals made by Howard and his wife, Sandra. Lewis said that Sandra Howard's list included reducing the quality of prison food, although Sandra Howard denied this claim. Lewis reported that Cameron was "uncomfortable" about the list.[69] In defending Sandra Howard and insisting that she made no such proposal, the journalist Bruce Anderson wrote that Cameron had proposed a much shorter definition on prison catering which revolved around the phrase "balanced diet", and that Lewis had written thanking Cameron for a valuable contribution.[70]
During his work for Howard, Cameron often briefed the press. In March 1994, someone leaked to the press that the Labour Party had called for a meeting with John Major to discuss a consensus on the Prevention of Terrorism Act. After a leak inquiry failed to find the culprit, Labour MP Peter Mandelson demanded an assurance from Howard that Cameron had not been responsible, which Howard gave.[71][72] A senior Home Office civil servant noted the influence of Howard's Special Advisers saying previous incumbents "would listen to the evidence before making a decision. Howard just talks to young public school gentlemen from the party headquarters."[73]
Carlton
In July 1994, Cameron left his role as Special Adviser to work as the Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications.[74] Carlton, which had won the ITV franchise for London weekdays in 1991, were a growing media company which also had film distribution and video producing arms. In 1997 Cameron played up the company's prospects for digital terrestrial television, for which it joined with Granada television and BSkyB to form British Digital Broadcasting.[75] In a roundtable discussion on the future of broadcasting in 1998 he criticised the effect of overlapping different regulators on the industry.[76]
Carlton's consortium did win the digital terrestrial franchise but the resulting company suffered difficulties in attracting subscribers. In 1999 the Express on Sunday newspaper claimed Cameron had rubbished one of its stories which had given an accurate number of subscribers, because he wanted the number to appear higher than expected.[77] Cameron resigned as Director of Corporate Affairs in February 2001 in order to fight for election to Parliament, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant.[78]
Parliamentary candidacy
Having been approved for the candidates' list, Cameron began looking for a seat. He was reported to have missed out on selection for Ashford in December 1994 after failing to get to the selection meeting as a result of train delays.[79] Early in 1996, he was selected for Stafford, a new constituency created in boundary changes, which was projected to have a Conservative majority.[80] At the 1996 Conservative Party conference he called for tax cuts in the forthcoming budget to be targeted at the low paid and to "small businesses where people took money out of their own pockets to put into companies to keep them going".[81] He also said the party, "Should be proud of the Tory tax record but that people needed reminding of its achievements ... It's time to return to our tax cutting agenda. The socialist Prime Ministers of Europe have endorsed Tony Blair because they want a federal pussy cat and not a British lion."[82]
When writing his election address, Cameron made his own opposition to British membership of the single European currency clear, pledging not to support it. This was a break with official Conservative policy but about 200 other candidates were making similar declarations.[83] Otherwise, Cameron kept very closely to the national party line. He also campaigned using the claim that a Labour government would increase the cost of a pint of beer by 24p; however the Labour candidate David Kidney portrayed Cameron as "a right-wing Tory". Stafford had a swing almost the same as the national swing, which made it one of the many seats to fall to Labour: David Kidney had a majority of 4,314.[84][85] In the round of selection contests taking place in the run-up to the 2001 general election, Cameron again attempted to be selected for a winnable seat. He tried out for the Kensington and Chelsea seat after the death of Alan Clark,[86] but did not make the shortlist.
He was in the final two but narrowly lost at Wealden in March 2000,[87] a loss ascribed by Samantha Cameron to his lack of spontaneity when speaking.[88]
On 4 April 2000 Cameron was selected as prospective candidate for Posted via email from projectbrainsaver
