Cameron 'not eyeing political comeback'

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Friends of David Cameron have insisted he harbours no immediate ambition to return to frontline Politics and has been displeased by speculation he would love to be foreign secretary in a future Conservative government.
One said the former prime Minister intended to 'purposefully stay out of politics for the foreseeable future well beyond Brexit next spring and that he was pursuing a portfolio career after 'pretty much completing his delayed memoir.
The book is due out next autumn, a year later than planned, leaving Cameron to concentrate on a mixture of commercial and charitable work, including setting up a UK-China investment fund and a 'blue belt clean ocean initiative launched recently with the former US secretary of state John Kerry.
But Cameron, according to the friend, remains 'a believer in the idea of public service should a suitable public role emerge in the future, although there is little sign that Theresa May would be accommodating.
No 10 would only say that it was 'up to him if Cameron wanted to return to public life, giving no indication that it was a prospect that would be welcomed by his successor.
The denials emerged after the Sun reported that Cameron was bored and fancied a return to the Cabinet whenever a new leader succeeded May, prompting a torrent of criticism from former political opponents.
Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, tweeted: 'No David please stay in retirement you caused enough damage last time. Her fellow Labour MP Anna Turley said: 'The sense of entitlement is unreal.
Cameron's post-political career has so far seen him take a different direction to other key figures from the coalition period, who have landed lucrative jobs in the private sector after government.
George Osborne, who was Cameron's chancellor, is now the editor of the Evening Standard newspaper in London and has also taken on a lucrative advisory role with the US investment firm BlackRock, which in 2017 was paying him £650,000 a year for working one day a week.
Last month it emerged the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg had been appointed head of global policy at Facebook, advising Mark Zuckerberg as the company deals with growing political scrutiny.
Cameron is understood to still be distressed by Brexit, which followed his decision to hold the EU referendum, and by the current state of the Tories, where anti-EU MPs are arguably more powerful than ever.
He is widely understood to support the 'Norway for now soft Brexit option, rejected emphatically by May but supported by a handful of former allies in parliament, such as Grantham and Stamford MP Nick Boles, a long-time friend of Cameron. It involves the UK remaining in the single market by staying in the European Economic Area.
May and hard Brexiters claim it would leave Britain a rule-taker.
Cameron has been paid £800,000 by Harper Collins for his memoir, which will tell the story of his life from childhood but with a focus on the period after he became Tory leader in 2005.
He resigned as an MP in September 2016 saying he did not want his presence to become a distraction for May.

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