Facts about David Cameron
David Cameron Biography
David Cameron is the Conservative Party leader who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from May of 2010 until his resignation in July of 2016.
David Cameron was born in London but grew up in Berkshire, England. He attended Eton and then received a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford in 1988. After Oxford, Cameron jumped right into politics with a job in the research department of the Conservative Party. From 1990-97 he worked in corporate communications for the TV company Carlton, but left the company to return to politics.
David Cameron was elected as a Member of Parliament for Witney, Oxfordshire in 2001. Regarded as a fresh blast of young (and moderate) air for a stuffy old Conservative Party, he was named party leader in 2005; he was often compared to Tony Blair, who played a similarly rejuvenating role for the Labour Party a decade earlier. The Conservative Party made an unexpectedly strong showing in the elections of May 6, 2010, and Cameron was asked by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government when Gordon Brown resigned on May 11, 2010.
Cameron was retained as prime minister in 2015 after the Conservative Party won what the BBC called a “shock election victory”; while pollsters expected the party would struggle to stay in power, the Conservatives instead won 331 seats, a clear majority of the 650 seats in Parliament. However, Cameron announced in June of 2016 that he would step down as prime minister after Britons voted to leave the European Union (the so-called “Brexit” vote).
Cameron resigned on July 13, 2016 and was replaced (as both prime minister and Conservative Party leader) by Theresa May.
On November 13, 2023, Cameron returned to government as the Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Cameron was brought in after Sunak fired far-right Home Secretary Suella Braverman and reshuffled his cabinet. In order to qualify for his role in government, Cameron was made a life peer (that is, a baron whose title is not inherited) and joined the House of Lords.
Extra credit
David Cameron married the former Samantha Sheffield in 1996. Their son Ivan was born in 2002 with cerebral palsy and epilepsy; Ivan died on February 25, 2009. They have three other children: Nancy (b. 2004), Arthur (b. 2006) and Florence Rose Endellion (b. 2010)… Samantha Cameron is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield of Oxfordshire and Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones; her father is a baronet and her mother is now Viscountess Astor from her second marriage. His wife’s aristocratic ties, plus his own education at Eton and Oxford, led some to accuse David Cameron of being an aristocrat in populist’s clothing… David Cameron is an avid bicyclist, and in his early political days was known for the unusual act of riding his bicycle to work in Parliament… David Cameron was a member of Brasenose College at Oxford… In the UK, the Conservative Party is also known as the Tory Party, or simply as the Tories.