UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak now faces his first no-confidence letter after the sacking of Interior Minister Suella Braverman in a cabinet reshuffle.
Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, a loyalist of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has called for Sunak's replacement with a "real Conservative party leader".
"Enough is enough...It is time for Rishi Sunak to go...," she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) and shared her no-confidence letter.
Rishi Sunak sprang a major surprise on Nov 13, 2023 when he announced appointment of former Prime Minister as Britain's new Foreign Secretary.
Sunak since assuming power in 2022 gave mixed signals and tried to be 'many things'. But even as he tried to proclaim himself as a catalyst of transition -- but he remained someone not really defined by the past 13 years of Conservative government.
The appointment has sent shockwaves through Westminster, and left many scratching their heads as to what it will mean for British politics.
Rishi Sunak has tried to bring "calm to the chaotic government he inherited", says CNN and not without reasons.
His predecessor Liz Truss’ economic policies had caused the pound to fall to its lowest level against the dollar in decades.
Inflation was in double digits. Interest rates were rising.
And his governing Conservative Party was still struggling to recover from the turmoil of Boris Johnson’s premiership before Truss – which ended in scandal, public fury and dreadful poll ratings.
Despite his aim of steadying the ship, Sunak has struggled to tell a convincing story of exactly what his political personality is and to which brand of Conservatism he belongs.
David Cameron, 57, served as British prime minister from 2010 to 2016, resigning after the outcome of the Brexit referendum, when Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Sunak's office also said that King Charles had approved giving Cameron a seat in Britain's upper chamber, the House of Lords, allowing him to return to government as a minister despite no longer being an elected member of parliament.
Cameron's six years at the top of government will undoubtedly be an asset to Mr Sunak, at a time when the government is consumed by foreign crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.
But with long-serving figures like Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove already in the cabinet, it could make it even harder for the prime minister to present himself to voters as a force for change.
"There could also be some unease among Tory circles about the "golden age" of relations with China that was a key feature of Lord Cameron's own foreign policy when he was the occupant of No 10," notes the BBC analyst.
There is another angle to look at. The unexpected return of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Cameron to British politics during Israel’s war in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests in Britain has sparked questions over the implications for the UK’s policies towards the Middle East.
Cameron, now foreign secretary, has previously called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and advocated for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, he has also been a staunch backer of Israel. Ben Whitham, professor of international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS), said that while Cameron was expected to strike “a more conciliatory tone”, he would not be favourable to Palestinians in the conflict.
Circa 2023, Soldiers photographed with Israeli flags inside Hamas’s parliament building; army details elimination of multiple Hamas commanders in effort to disrupt terror group’s operations
It is also worth recall that during his tenure as prime minister from 2010 to 2016, Cameron had criticised Israel’s “illegal” settlements in the occupied West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp,” he said on a visit to Turkey in 2010.
Conventional wisdom had been that Sunak was too weak to sack Braverman, even though she had been speaking out on controversial issues for months and had, most believe, been laying the groundwork to replace Sunak should he lose the next election.
Many also believed that keeping Braverman in a key cabinet post was primarily about party management and appeasing the right of his party who privately suspected Sunak to be a closet liberal.
The appointment of Cameron and sacking of Braverman might suggest to those critics that Sunak is finally showing his true colours and throwing his lot in with the moderates – thereby distancing himself from the culture wars and tub thumping of Johnson, Truss and, indeed, Braverman.
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