James Cleverly: What’s the background of new UK Home Secretary?

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed James Cleverly as the new Home Secretary after asking Suella Braverman to step down on Monday morning, days after she wrote a controversial anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim article for The Times.

Cleverly is taking up the new job after serving as the foreign secretary since September 2022. The ruling Conservative Party congratulated Cleverly on X.

Cleverly’s career and early life

Born in Lewisham, London, on September 4, 1969, Cleverly comes from a mixed heritage background. His mother was a midwife originally from Sierra Leone while his father ran a small business as a surveyor.

Cleverly has publicly said that working alongside his father helped him understand the "importance of supporting both businesses and the public sector."

Educated in Chelmsford, he left school to join the army until his ambitions were cut short by an injury. He later returned to education, getting a degree in business before joining the UK's Territorial Army (TA), a reserve unit.

Cleverly said the opportunity allowed him to ascend the ranks and become a Lieutenant Colonel in reserve force.

Cleverly's LinkedIn profile reveals a close and longstanding association with the British Armed Forces. Since the early nineties, he has carried out a number of leadership roles in the reservists. In 2004, his LinkedIn profile says, he served for a year while supporting the "operations in Iraq."

In 2000, he married Susannah Sparks. The couple have two sons.

In 2008, he was elected Member of the London Assembly for Bexley and Bromley.

Four years later, then-London Mayor Boris Johnson appointed Cleverly to be the Chairmanship of the London Fire Authority. In 2015, he was elected as the Conservative MP from Braintree.

Following the change of administration in October 2022, Sunak kept Cleverly in situ as Foreign Secretary.

While looking after the UK’s overseas interests, some have described him as "excessively subservient to Foreign Office advice, which includes appeasing China and Saudi Arabia."

In August this year Cleverly became the first British foreign secretary to visit Beijing in 5 years in a bid to boost ties. At the time he insisted on a "pragmatic" approach to economic and relations but underscored "engaging with China doesn’t mean that we shy away from the tough conversations.”

Last week, he held high-level talks in Saudi Arabia with regional foreign ministers concerning the crisis in Gaza. He said the aim was “to secure the release of hostages, to ensure that foreign nationals can leave Gaza, to deter any escalation regionally and to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid at scale."

In September this year, he took part in a bilateral meeting with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan to discuss bilateral relations including economy, trade, tourism, defence industry, combatting terrorism and irregular migration. He called Türkiye an "indispensable partner."

In March, he took a strong position against Argentina, which broke a key cooperation pact. In place since 2016, the pact was aimed at boosting relations following the bloody 1982 war over the Falkland Islands or Malvinas - as the South Atlantic archipelago is known in Spanish. On X, Cleverly said "The Falkland Islands are British," and added, "Islanders have the right to decide their own future - they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory."

Cleverly faced controversy after denying Islamophobia as a form of racism, using what critics have called “a trope that Islam is not a race.” On BBC’s show Politics Live, he pushed back against adopting a stringent definition of Islamophobia, despite a bid from the Muslim Council of Britain.

David Cameron makes a comeback

The Conservative party also confirmed the return to the fold of former prime minister David Cameron to office as foreign secretary.

On X, the Conservative party said the move shows its commitment “to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future"

According to Sky News, Cameron has received a "barony" to serve in government while describing the move as "highly unusual."

In recent months, Cameron faced accusations of advancing China’s geopolitical interests in the Indo-Pacific. Critics accuse him of backing a controversial Colombo Port City project in the Middle East that could serve as a Chinese military outpost.

According to Politico, in September Cameron spoke as a guest speaker at two finance events - one in Abu Dhabi and the other in Dubai - for the Colombo Port City, after visiting Sri Lanka earlier this year.

Cameron's spokesperson said the ex-prime minister had no direct contact with the Chinese government, nor the Chinese company involved.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton denounced Cameron's backing of the project, calling it "a classic example of how China buys votes and influence in developing countries and then sends the bailiffs in when those countries can't keep up the payments."