For the Record

For the Record
David Cameron

‘The political memoir of the decade’ Sunday Times The referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU is one of the most controversial political events of our times. For the first time, the man who called that vote talks about the decision and its origins, as well as giving a candid account of his time at the top of British politics. David Cameron was Conservative Party leader during the largest financial crash in living memory. The Arab Spring and the Eurozone crisis both started during his first year as prime minister. The backdrop to his time in office included the advent of ISIS, surging migration and a rapidly changing EU. Here he talks about how he confronted those challenges, from modernising a party that had suffered three successive electoral defeats to forming the first coalition government for seventy years. He sets out how he helped turn around Britain’s economy, implementing a modern, compassionate agenda that included education and welfare reform, the legalisation of gay marriage, the referendum on Scottish independence and world-leading environmental policies. David Cameron is searingly honest about the key players from his time in politics. And he is frank about himself – the things he got right and the things he got wrong. He opens up about family life too, including the tragic loss of his eldest son. We learn why he kept Britain’s promise on overseas aid spending and what it was like to commit British troops to conflicts in Libya, Iraq and Syria. He sets out how he won the first outright Conservative majority in nearly a quarter of a century, and describes the events leading up to the EU referendum, the renegotiation, the campaign – and his thoughts on it all today. It is the most compelling record yet of what it’s like to lead in modern times and to live behind the most famous door in the world.

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Copyright (#u789047ca-ff68-5fa2-b8c8-a01b5b90a4e0)

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019

Copyright © David Cameron 2019

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover photograph © Chris Floyd

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: 9780008239282

Ebook Edition: September 2019 ISBN: 9780008239305

Version: 2019-10-02

Dedication (#u789047ca-ff68-5fa2-b8c8-a01b5b90a4e0)

For Samantha

Contents

1  Cover (#u268c1c65-b6a2-514e-8daf-67fd1f042ae6)

2  Title Page

3  Copyright

4  Dedication

5  Contents (#u789047ca-ff68-5fa2-b8c8-a01b5b90a4e0)

6  List of Illustrations

7 Foreword

8  1 Five Days in May

9 2 A Berkshire Boy

10  3 Eton, Oxford … and the Soviet Union

11  4 Getting Started

12  5 Samantha

13  6 Into Parliament

14  7 Our Darling Ivan

15  8 Men or Mice?

16  9 Hoodies and Huskies

17  10 Cliff Edge, Collapse and Scandal

18  11 Going to the Polls

19  12 Cabinet Making

20  13 Special Relationships

21  14 Afghanistan and the Armed Forces

22  15 Budgets and Banks

23  16 Nos 10 and 11 – Neighbours, Friends and Families

24  17 Progressive Conservatism in Practice

25  18 Success and Failure

26  19 Party and Parliament

27  20 Leveson

28  21 Libya and the Arab Spring

29  22 Referendum and Riots