Anthony Seldon - Cameron at 10 - From Election to Brexit

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This ebook first published in Great Britain by William Collins 2015

Copyright © 2015 Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon

Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon assert the moral

right to be identified as the authors of this work

Principal researchers: Jonathan Meakin and Illias Thoms

All profits from Anthony Seldon’s writing are given to charity

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

Cover photograph © Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007575510

Ebook Edition © September 2015 ISBN: 9780007575527

Version: 2016-07-05

To Julia Snowdon and Joanna Seldon

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Frontispiece

Dedication

List of Illustrations

Dramatis Personae

Introduction to the Paperback Edition: Cameron at 10: 2010–16: The Verdict

1 First Night in Downing Street: 11 May 2010

2 Origin of ‘Plan A’: September 2008– February 2010

3 ‘If we win’: 6–12 May 2010

4 Delivering Plan A: May–October 2010

5 Bloody Sunday Statement: 15 June 2010

6 Chequers Summit on Afghanistan: June 2010

7 Life and Death in the Cameron Family: February 2009–September 2010

8 Coulson Departure: May 2010–February 2011

9 Taking on Gaddafi: February–September 2011

10 AV Referendum: Coalition Buckles: January–May 2011

11 Scottish Referendum Call: May 2011–February 2012

12 London Riots: August 2011

13 The Big Society and Beyond: May 2010–April 2012

14 The EU: Back Burner to Veto: May 2010–December 2011

15 The NHS Debacle: November 2009–September 2012

16 Cameron and Obama: March 2012

17 Omnishambles Budget: March 2012

18 Olympian Summer, Olympian Difficulties: May–September 2012

19 Lords and Boundaries: January–December 2012

20 Halfway Point: Autumn Blues: September–December 2012

21 Cameron Pledges a Referendum: April 2012–February 2013

22 Gay Marriage Saga: October 2011–July 2013

23 Lynton to the Rescue?: January 2013–October 2014

24 Warfare Over Welfare: May 2010–December 2014

25 The Darkest Hour Before Dawn: January–June 2013

26 The Iron Lady’s Long Shadow: April 2013

27 Maximum Danger: Syria Vote: August 2013

28 Essay Crisis Autumn: September 2013–February 2014

29 China Warms, Russia Cools: October 2013–March 2014

30 2014 Budget: Powering the North: March 2014–February 2015

31 The UKIP Challenge: 2013–2014

32 The Gove Reshuffle: July 2014

33 Scotland Decides: September 2014

34 EU Tribulations: January–June 2014

35 Final Autumn: September–December 2014

36 Controlling Immigration: November 2014

37 Farewell Washington: January 2015

38 A Diminished Britain?: September 2014–March 2015

39 The Coalition Endures: November 2014–March 2015

40 ‘If we lose’: March–May 2015

41 ‘The sweetest victory’: 7–8 May 2015

42 Road to Nowhere: May 2015–June 2016

43 Full Circle: 23–24 June 2016

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Notes

Index

By Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon

About the Publisher

Frontispiece: Cameron and his team inside Number 10 on the morning after the Scottish Referendum, 19 September 2014. Craig Oliver and Kate Fall are on the left of the picture (© Crown Copyright/Arron Hoare)

Chapter 1: David and Samantha Cameron enter Number 10 after winning the general election, 11 May 2010 (© Andrew Parsons/i-Images)

Chapter 2: David Cameron and William Hague at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, 30 September 2008 (© Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Chapter 3: David Cameron and Nick Clegg inside Number 10 (© Andrew Parsons/i-Images)

Chapter 4: George Osborne leaves 11 Downing Street to deliver his first Budget as chancellor, 22 June 2010 (© ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy)

Chapter 5: People cheer outside the Guild Hall in Londonderry, Northern Ireland as David Cameron reads a statement on the Bloody Sunday inquiry, 15 June 2010 (© Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 6: David Cameron addresses British soldiers at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province on 11 June 2010 (© Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 7: David Cameron embraces his father Ian in Swindon, 18 April 2010 (© Toby Melville/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Chapter 8: Andy Coulson leaves Number 10 following his resignation on 21 January 2011 (© Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Chapter 9 : Nicolas Sarkozy speaks to the crowd in Benghazi as David Cameron listens, 15 September 2011 (© Philippe Wojazer/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 10: David Cameron before delivering a speech against a proposed change to the UK voting system on 18 April 2011 (© Oli Scarff/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Chapter 11: David Cameron meets Alex Salmond during talks on the Scottish independence referendum in St Andrews House in Edinburgh, 16 February 2012 (© David Cheskin/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Chapter 12: David Cameron talks to Acting Borough Commander Police Superintendent Jo Oakley in Croydon on 9 August 2011, following the London riots (© Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 13: Steve Hilton arrives in Downing Street on 21 February 2012 (© Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Chapter 14: David Cameron greets Angela Merkel outside Chequers, 30 October 2010 (© Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 15: David Cameron, press officer Gabby Bertin and operations head Liz Sugg leave after meeting workers at Dudley Ambulance Station on 5 May 2010 (© Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Chapter 16: David Cameron and Barack Obama in the Rose Garden of the White House, 14 March 2012 (© Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Chapter 17: George Osborne is shown making his Budget speech on television screens in an electrical store, 21 March 2012 (© David Moir/Reuters/Corbis)

Chapter 18: David Cameron and Boris Johnson in London, 16 April 2012 (© Olivia Harris/AFP/Getty Images)

Chapter 19: David Cameron and Nick Clegg at the Olympic Park, 12 May 2011 (© Pool/Reuters/Corbis)