David Cameron's political comeback another example of British politics following the Canberra playbook
david cameron bob carr rishi sunak suella braverman
Riley Stuart Nick Dole www.abc.net.au riley-stuart nick-dole
Brits were shocked when a former prime minister was parachuted back into politics in the role of foreign minister on Monday, but many Australians know this story well, including how it could end.
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It's a plot twist straight out of Australia's political soap opera — a character long written out of the script turns up years later, like nothing ever happened.

The storyline may have been fit for Canberra but, once again, it's happening in London.

A British spin-off of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison drama people Down Under watched for years has just been renewed for another season.

And it's starring David Cameron — again.

Mr Cameron's resurrection on Monday came as a shock to many people, including some government MPs.

The 57-year-old, who resigned as UK prime minister and a member of parliament in 2016, was appointed foreign secretary as part of Rishi Sunak's cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Cameron has kept a low profile since leaving politics and had, most recently, been working in the private sector.

It's not like he was out of favour, or sitting on the backbench waiting for the right moment to return.

Mr Cameron wasn't even an MP, making his ministerial comeback even more of a bombshell.

King Charles has appointed Mr Cameron to the House of Lords — Britain's unelected upper chamber of parliament — paving the way for his appointment.

Unexpected? Absolutely. But Australians have seen a similar script before.

Plenty of parallels have been drawn between Westminster and Canberra over the past 15 or so years.

This latest development is another.

As Australia's governments began knifing leader after leader, the trend caught on in the UK, which had five prime ministers in the seven years since Mr Cameron called it quits.

More recently, "stop the boats" — a soundbite Aussies know well — has made its way into the British political vernacular, as the Sunak government attempts to highlight the rising number of asylum seekers trying to cross the English Channel.

Mr Cameron's appointment evokes memories of former NSW premier Bob Carr's return to politics in 2012.

Seven years after he had resigned from Macquarie Street's top job (and as the member for Maroubra, too), then-Australian PM Julia Gillard parachuted Mr Carr into a Senate vacancy in Canberra and made him foreign minister.

He held the plum position for 18 months before Tony Abbott's Coalition swept Labor from power.

While Mr Cameron is a high-profile name coming in to Sunak's cabinet, Home Secretary Suella Braverman is another going out.

Ms Braverman was on Monday sacked after a turbulent weekend in which she was accused by critics of inciting racial hatred and defying No.10 by publishing an op-ed in London's The Times newspaper in which she criticised police for allowing a Palestinian solidarity demonstration to take place on Armistice Day.

The right-winger's bullish views on immigration and LGBTQIA+ rights, amongst other social issues, meant she was never far from the headlines.

In a particularly memorable speech in the House of Commons, her description of environmental protesters as being part of "the coalition of chaos — it's the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati" has been written into British political folk law.

Cameron facing plenty of challenges

In October, Mr Sunak made a major speech declaring it was "time for change" in politics, vowing he would end the 30-year "status quo" that people have come to expect from Westminster.

Now, just six weeks later, he's asked a centrist former prime minister to rejoin the ranks as he attempts to turn his political fortunes around.

Mr Cameron and Mr Sunak haven't always seen eye to eye.

Last month, after Ms Sunak scrapped a significant portion of a major high-speed rail project known as HS2, Mr Cameron suggested he'd squandered a "once-in-a-generation opportunity".

The two men also disagreed about Brexit. Rishi Sunak says he's a "proud" Brexiteer.

Despite triggering the referendum which allowed Brexit to happen, Mr Cameron campaigned against leaving the European Union and resigned in the wake of the 2016 vote.

He'd previously warned that "whenever we turn our back on Europe, sooner or later we come to regret it."

Now, as foreign secretary, Mr Cameron will have to advocate for a country that did just that.

The relationship between the UK and China has also changed dramatically since Mr Cameron was prime minister, when he declared the two nations were entering a "golden era" of cooperation.

Since then, the UK has expelled Chinese diplomats, British police have arrested alleged Chinese spies and Mr Sunak has been pressured by some of his own MPs to designate China a "threat".

Mr Cameron will now have the difficult task of trying to stabilise ties with China whilst still appearing to maintain the harder line which many MPs appear to support.

After resigning as prime minister, Mr Cameron found work as a political lobbyist for Australian financier Lex Greensill — a role which landed him in hot water.

A parliamentary committee found he had displayed a "significant lack of judgement" in sending dozens of texts to senior ministers in 2019, lobbying for the UK government to give financial support to Greensill Capital.

Greensill Capital, which reportedly paid Mr Cameron an equivalent salary of £29,000 ($55,000) per day, collapsed in 2021.

Despite that controversy, perhaps the biggest risk in Mr Sunak's reshuffle is a backlash from his own MPs.

Many on the Conservative Party's right wing viewed Ms Braverman as their voice in cabinet.

Now she's on the backbench, she no longer has the power or platform she once did.

However, she'll be able to criticise the prime minister more freely, potentially gathering momentum for a leadership challenge if the government loses the next election.

And that's something that appears more and more likely to happen.

Adding Mr Carr's experience to cabinet 18 months out from a federal vote couldn't save Australia's Labor government from losing 17 seats and being swept from office.

Mr Sunak's Conservatives are also behind in the polls, with a general election on the horizon.

They are certainly similar storylines so far, but the British PM will be trying to write a different ending.