Authority, intelligence, good looks – why do some Tories dislike David Cameron?

Any government which recruits David Cameron is ipso facto stronger. When the net effect is that he replaces Suella Braverman, that strength is redoubled. He is a political grown-up. No disrespect to James Cleverly, who is a good fellow, but Lord Cameron’s experience and long-matured wisdom are formidable assets in a dangerous world. 

Yet in some Tory quarters, he arouses antagonism and always has. I find this almost incomprehensible.

An affable fellow, David Cameron is excellent company, with a seemingly effortless gift for friendship. He has a clear and incisive mind, but wears his considerable powers of intellect lightly. He could never be accused of talking for victory. He is also wholly at ease in his own skin and, his favourite phrase, for him, the glass is always half full, not half empty. He knows how to multi-task, to use time productively: to work hard while also enjoying himself.

He has experienced tragedy. “You can never be happier than your least happy child.” David’s eldest son Ivan was condemned to a brief life as an often pain-wracked invalid. Families have broken up under the weight of similar suffering. In David and Samantha’s case, the burdens of shared pain only strengthened the bonds of shared love. 

So it would seem as if this is a man with an admirable range of qualities. Yet a number of Tory MPs and commentators always seem to be searching for a reason to dislike him. One explanation for this is Brexit. David Cameron was a remainer. But that ship has sailed. When he lost the referendum, the then Mr Cameron was certain that he had to resign. He accepted that his authority had been destroyed and that a new PM should now face the new challenges. But he was never a remoaner or a remaniac. Equally, some prominent Brexiteers are bad winners. They appear to be unable to relax in their victory: to accept that they have won.

But the underlying reason for the resentments is not ideology. It is personality. In this regard, David Cameron has the defects of his qualities. His confidence, his air of authority, his good looks, his entire absence of insecurity – all this grates on some less self-assured colleagues. One might have thought it impossible for any Tory MP to suffer from a social chip. But there it is. Some do. The accusations follow: Eton, privilege, entitlement. Eton is of course a four-letter word. Yet I have known David for more than thirty years. and he never harks back to his schooldays. Though he is grateful for a good education, David would not have dreamt of assuming that the world owed him deference and status. What he has, he has earned, by hard work built on ability. 

He has also been criticised for his dealings with China; his willingness to try to woo Mr Xi over a pint of beer in Oxfordshire. Yet those who appear to be arguing that we should treat China as a pariah state should think again. We surely do not wish to see an axis of rogue states from Russian through Iran, China and North Korea. On trade and the international legal order, efforts to entice the Chinese to cooperate have not yet been fruitful. Will the day ever come when they respect other nations’ intellectual property? The Chinese can be – and usually are – difficult and truculent. But it is worth persevering. After all, we have negotiated Aukus, which is hardly an instance of weak-willed appeasement. 

In the short run, the foreign nation which will be most preoccupying HMG is Rwanda. Difficult and truculent: at least in private, a lot of Tory MPs might find stronger language to use about the judiciary. At some stage, there will have to be a fundamental review of the axis between human rights legislation, the ECHR and Supreme Court-itis. But that should not be conducted in haste. The immediate problem – the immediate embarrassment – is to find a way of stopping the boats and protecting British subjects’ rights not to be enfiladed by illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers. 

Today, the PM was surprisingly relaxed and calm. He will also have one consolation after the defeat in court. His inner councils no longer include Suella Braverman and he will have David Cameron.

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