David Cameron
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The Rt Hon the Lord Cameron, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. For the past two decades David Cameron has been a central figure in a rapidly changing world, shaping global politics, wrestling the forces of populism, and promoting moderate, compassionate conservatism in an age of disruption and tumult.
As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016, Lord Cameron led Britain’s first coalition government since the Second World War, a daring move that not only pulled the nation back from economic disaster but led to Britain becoming the fastest-growing major advanced economy in the world. Under his leadership, millions of jobs were created, record apprenticeships were started, schools were transformed, renewable energy became mainstream, the target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid was met, and same-sex marriage was legalised, as Britain blazed a global trail in areas from equality to the environment.
Lord Cameron is one of the few international figures who has forged relationships with the key leaders of the 21st century – from Barack Obama and Angela Merkel; to Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump; to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. His decisive actions against extremist threats contributed significantly to global security, reinforcing his reputation as a leader capable of addressing the most pressing international challenges.
At the 2015 General Election, he won the first Conservative majority in over two decades, and became the only ever British Prime Minister serve a full term in office before increasing both his party’s share of the vote and their number of seats in the House of Commons.
Only a year later, in 2016, after his ambitious renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the European Union, his campaign to remain in the EU culminated in an unexpected vote for Brexit. He stepped down as Prime Minister shortly after the poll.
However, in 2023, in the wake of the October 7th massacre in Israel and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lord Cameron was called back to serve in frontline politics as the UK’s Foreign Secretary. It was a highly unusual twist in UK politics, responding to unprecedented global upheaval and crisis. Lord Cameron stepped up to serve, the first British Prime Minister to return to the Cabinet in over half a century.
Over the next nine months he made 54 visits to 36 countries, including multiple trips to the Middle East and Ukraine. He formulated the wording on a “sustainable ceasefire” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and built global support for the stance, which was soon adopted by the US, Europe and the UN. And working with key players across the political spectrum – from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Biden Administration, to President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican members of Congress – he played a pivotal role in unlocking critical funds for Ukraine’s continued resistance of Russian aggression.
Educated at Eton College and Oxford University, Lord Cameron won the leadership of the UK Conservative Party in 2005 aged just 38, after the party had suffered three consecutive electoral defeats. He made good on his mandate to modernise the party, by encouraging more women and ethnic minority candidates and MPs than ever in the party’s history and standing for issues that affected the modern world, from climate change to social breakdown. He went on to become the longest serving Conservative Party leader since Margaret Thatcher and, in 2010, the youngest Prime Minister in a century. He continues to sit in the House of Lords.
Outside of politics, Lord Cameron has devoted his time to furthering Britain’s cutting edge scientific and medical breakthroughs. Between 2016 and 2022, he was President of Alzheimer’s Research UK and now chairs the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre’s Advisory Council, following his global leadership in setting-up the ground-breaking 100,000 Genomes Project as Prime Minister. He chaired the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, which called for a new approach to international aid; sits on the Global Board of Advisors at the Council on Foreign Relations; and advises a number of international technology and financial businesses.
In 2019 he released his memoir, For the Record, a Sunday Times bestseller. He is a Visiting Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi, and in 2023 led a course on Practising Politics in the Age of Populism.