Lord Cameron is a coward – jumping ship is what he does best

Another day, and another Tory implosion. This time in the form of former Prime Minister David Cameron who has resigned as Shadow Foreign Secretary following his party’s catastrophic defeat in the General Election.

Quelle surprise! Cameron quits again. And, once more, at the worst possible moment. This time he cited his inability to hold Labour’s new Foreign Secretary David Lammy to account from the House of Lords.

Really, is that the excuse? I suppose accountability wasn’t much of an issue when he couldn’t challenge the Opposition in the House of Commons because he wasn’t an elected MP. It’s one rule for me and another for thee.

Nonetheless, is anyone really surprised? Jumping ship is what our dear Lord Cameron does best. He did it after the Brexit vote in 2016, and he’s doing it again now. When the going gets tough… David Cameron gets going.

Many will wonder why he even bothered to take on the role of Foreign Secretary in the first place, since he’s so quick to give it up. It certainly wasn’t for love of country, duty or any of the other empty platitudes he’s known for bandying about.

That much, I can assure you. He accepted his peerage and the cabinet role for one reason and one reason only – he wanted another bite at the cherry.

Unlike his successors, notably Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Lord Cameron is not oblivious to the fact he is the subject of national disdain. His track record is a sorry blip in history – both ineffectual and uninspired.

The poor man’s heir to Blair that never really took off, if you will.

From failing to reduce annual net migration to the UK to "tens of thousands" (as he twice promised), to failing to meet house building targets (and worsening the housing crisis), to then failing on the Brexit vote – which he walked away from in disgrace, Lord Cameron’s career has been largely characterised by one word: failure. And it’s been one after another, like a set of falling dominoes.

Is it then any surprise he decided to take on a key role in the dying days of a government that flirted with everything he ideologically opposed? A government that tried to get tough on immigration, reform the welfare system, and made murmurings about the desperate need for radical NHS reform?

Why else would David Cameron find himself in a government that had made the likes of Suella Braverman Home Secretary, and made a point of being willing to leave the ECHR to get the Rwanda scheme over the finish line?

It certainly wasn’t because his views had changed. It just happened to be what suited him at the time. With this latest stunt, however, it’s clear that David Cameron is interested only in serving himself.

It’s such a shame that, just like in 2016, his lordship has chosen to scurry off at such a pivotal point in the country’s history.

Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on. Thousands of people continue to be killed in Gaza while dozens of Israeli hostages remain trapped. Xi Jinping’s China continues to threaten Taiwan with impunity, and all the while, Joe Biden, the “leader of the free world”, can’t tell his leg from his elbow.

The West has never been in more desperate need of competent, reliable leadership. How will history remember Lord Cameron for once again putting personal gain above service? As a ‘noble’ public servant who ran into a string of bad luck? I doubt it.

After all, this is the same man who lobbied unsuccessfully for government-backed loans on behalf of a finance company he made millions of pounds from. A scandal that was only made worse because it came to light during the pandemic, a time when the country was on its knees and fraudulent government contracts were being handed out left right and centre.

True service means staying when times get tough – not running off to salvage whatever is left of one’s reputation. He has not only proven to be a failure but a coward too. A man who talked a big game but never had the guts to stick through the hard times.

I can’t say that Cameron’s resignation is any great loss. After all, he was already deeply unpopular within his own party. However, now the role of Foreign Secretary has passed on to David Lammy, Britain needs all the help it can get.

If Mr Lammy’s appearance on Celebrity Mastermind back in 2009 is anything to go by, history students will soon be taught that Marie Antoinette won the Nobel Prize for physics; Henry VII became king when Henry VIII died, and Red Leicester is the blue cheese that accompanies port. God help us all!