In a July 2005 speech to the
Centre for Social Justice he stated, "the biggest challenge our country faces today is not economic decline, but social decline", stating that in life in Britain "there is a complex web of interconnected problem ... Family breakdown. Persistent unemployment among some groups. Low expectations. Chaotic home environments. Drugs. Crime. Poor quality public space." Upon becoming leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron set up a number of committees, such as the Social Justice Policy Group chaired by
Iain Duncan Smith, to generate policy ideas on these issues. He describes
Big Society project as his "great passion"; with
10 Downing Street saying that the policy "create[s] a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to people'." Some commentators have seen the "Big Society" as invoking
Edmund Burke's idea of
civil society, putting it into the sphere of
one-nation conservatism, a legacy which Cameron "eagerly latched" onto, according to
Forbes. The idea of a "Big Society" became the flagship policy of the 2010
Conservative Party general election manifesto and formed part of the subsequent legislative programme of the
Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement. Upon the launch of the "Big Society" on 19 July 2010 it was deemed damaging and unworkable by the
Labour Party, the national press, and the country's two largest unions.
Counter-Extremism policy In the midst of the bombing campaign of ISIS in Iraq and the raft of murders by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists in the past decade both at home and abroad, Cameron outlined in a speech in July 2015 a plan based on what he termed "liberal values" to counter what he labelled as "extremism". He argued that people were attracted towards extremism for four primary reasons, and later set out four planks of a response. Among other items, he promised a Counter-Extremism Bill, empowered parents to cancel the passports of their children, said that the government would publish a
Counter-Extremism Strategy, reiterated his goal to promote identity politics, and offered a revitalised
Cohesive Communities Programme. It has been suggested by David Anderson QC (on behalf of a governmental anti-extremism watchdog) that: If the wrong decisions are taken, the new [counter-extremism] law risks provoking a backlash in affected communities, hardening perceptions of an illiberal or Islamophobic approach, alienating those whose integration into British society is already fragile, and playing into the hands of those who, by peddling a grievance agenda, seek to drive people further towards extremism and terrorism.
Media In May 2007, Cameron viewed the
BBC as a means of curbing the spread of
Islamism, saying:
Three-parent babies The question of three-parent embryos or three-person
IVF was proposed in December 2014 and passed through Parliament in February 2015. The
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (
Jane Ellison) obtained the support of 382 of her colleagues in this
free vote, including David Cameron.
Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, was very troubled by the technique, and instead urged members to support the negative motion of
Fiona Bruce, because "No other country has legalised this procedure for ethical reasons. The procedure would cause the germ-line to be interfered with and changed and human embryos could be destroyed in the process. It is unclear whether the UK would be violating international agreements on germ-line interventions and there has been no informed debate on the issue." In the event, the Bruce motion was un-voteable.
Succession to the Throne Female members of the Royal Family will be given equality with men in the rules of succession to the throne, under a new law first proposed in October 2011 by
David Cameron. The changes to the laws of succession were finalised with Royal Assent on 25 April 2013. Heirs to the throne will also be free to marry Roman Catholics, a choice which would have required their abdication in years gone by.
Forced marriage In June 2012, Cameron promised that forced marriage was to become a criminal offence, and that a package of measures would be put in place to ensure criminalisation does not drive the problem underground. Cameron stated that "Forced marriage is abhorrent and little more than slavery. To force anyone into marriage against their will is simply wrong and that is why we have taken decisive action to make it illegal." The provisions in the
Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 were enacted in Part 10. These make forced marriage and the breach of a
Forced Marriage Prevention Order (FMPO) criminal offences. The statutory changes came into force in June 2014. Breach of an FMPO is punishable in the Crown Court by five years' imprisonment and/or a fine. In the magistrates' court, the maximum prison sentence would be six months.
LGBT rights and same-sex marriage Cameron opposed the repeal of
Section 28 of the
Local Government Act 1988, which banned local authorities from the "
promotion of homosexuality". In 2000, Cameron accused Labour
Prime Minister Tony Blair of being against family values and of "moving heaven and earth to allow the promotion of homosexuality in our schools". In 2003, once Cameron had been elected as Conservative
MP for Witney, he was absent when parliament voted to repeal Section 28. Shortly after becoming leader of the Conservatives, he distanced himself from this stance, saying "I'm glad that it's gone". In 2009, he apologised for previously supporting Section 28. In 2002, Cameron voted in favour of a bill that would allow unmarried heterosexual couples to adopt children, but which would specifically ban gay couples from adopting. He later voted in favour of
civil partnerships for gay men and lesbians in 2004. In 2008, he opposed giving
lesbians the right to
in vitro fertilisation treatment, stating that they should be required to name a father figure, which received condemnation from
LGBT equality groups. In his speech at the 2011 Conservative Party Conference, Cameron endorsed
same-sex marriage: The coalition government began a consultation on same-sex marriage. The
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 was subsequently passed in 2013 and legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The government also changed the
ban on blood donations from men who have had sexual relations with other men from a permanent ban to a one-year ban, though the permanent ban remains in
Northern Ireland. When
David Cameron announced his resignation on 13 July 2016, the former Prime Minister said in his speech, "enabling those who love each other to get married whatever their sexuality" was one of his most significant accomplishments.
Health Cameron has pledged to develop policies to make the NHS a "more efficient, more effective and more patient-centered service." He wishes to grant the NHS much greater independence from the
Department of Health in order to prevent it being used as a "
political football" and to create "greater professional responsibility". In January 2007 he called for an "NHS Independence Bill", and asked the Labour leadership to support the bill, after he supported Blair's education reforms. In 2011 Cameron made five "personal guarantees" on the NHS • Not to endanger universal coverage – ensuring that it remains a NHS. • Not to break up or hinder efficient and integrated care, but to improve it. • Not to lose control of waiting times, ensuring they are kept low. • Not to cut spending on the NHS, but to increase it. • Not to sell-off the NHS but to ensure competition benefits patients. The following year, the Cameron-lead coalition government introduced the
Health and Social Care Act 2012, which has been described as the most deep-rooted and extensive reworking of the structure of the
National Health Service ever undertaken. The proposals are primarily the result of policies of the then Secretary of State for Health,
Andrew Lansley. Writing in
The BMJ,
Clive Peedell (co-chairman of the NHS Consultants Association and a consultant clinical oncologist) compared the policies with academic analyses of
privatisation and found "evidence that privatisation is an inevitable consequence of many of the policies contained in the Health and Social Care Bill". In 2014, Cameron called for global action to tackle the growing spread of
antibiotic resistance, wanting the UK to utilise its
pharmaceutical industry to lead the way and bring new drugs to the market. He commissioned economist
Jim O'Neill to lead an independent review exploring the economic issues surrounding resistance.
Education Cameron has endorsed Labour's creation of
city academies, as a way of improving standards in deprived areas. He called on the then government to go "further and faster" with the policy, saying that academies should be given even more freedom from central control. He said the scheme would be greatly extended if he were elected. He has pledged to give schools much greater independence from government, promising to give them control over admission policy and increase the use of specialist statuses. Before his election in 2010, Cameron had spoken of busting the public monopoly on education to let new schools be set up, although has not specified what exactly that means. Under Cameron's premiership the cap on
university tuition fees was increased from £3,290 to £9,000 per year which led to student protests nationwide. While it was speculated that the rise would deter poorer young people from higher education, in fact the gap between applications from richer and poorer students decreased after the rise.
MPs Expenses During the
MPs expenses scandal in 2009, Cameron said he would lead Conservatives in repaying "excessive" expenses and threatened to expel MPs that refused after the expense claims of several members of his shadow cabinet had been questioned
Disability Cameron stated in 2006 that the government needs to change social attitudes towards
disability by setting an example for the private sector. However, and the actions committed by
Iain Duncan Smith under Cameron's leadership have been criticised by
disability rights activists as disproportionately affecting disabled people. (See
"Welfare" section of this article).
ID cards Cameron has spoken out against mandatory
identity cards on a number of occasions, saying that they did not reduce crime and illegal immigration, were a waste of money and a violation of human rights. The
Identity Documents Bill was presented to the
House of Commons by
Home Secretary Theresa May on 26 May 2010, making the Identity Documents Act the first government bill to be introduced to the 55th Parliament of the United Kingdom under
David Cameron.
British Hindus Cameron supports referring to British Hindus as a separate ethnic group, refining definition of "Asian" to separate ethnic groups, saying "And if you prefer to be referred to as British Hindus or British Indians rather than as simply Asians, we should welcome that as a positive thing." Cameron's comments are significant because the British Hindu community prefer terms "Hindu" or "Indian" to the ethnic grouping Asian.
Fox hunting Cameron is in favour of overturning
the 2004 ban on fox hunting and has stated in 2010 and 2015 that a Conservative government under his leadership would give Parliament time for a free vote on the issue. He himself has been fox-hunting on several occasions. He has described the ban on fox-hunting in Britain as one of the issues that made him "furious". In response to this, over 24 MPs have given their support to
Conservatives Against Fox Hunting (also known as the "Blue Fox", after the party's colours), described by
The Independent as "a campaign group set up to challenge the pro-hunt lobby's influence" in the Conservative Party. The
High Court also declared the minimum age for foreign spouses to be unlawful. He has called for the introduction of a British Border Control police force, quotas for asylum seekers and all asylum claims to be assessed in overseas centres. If necessary, the party under his leadership would "tear up its commitments under the
1951 UN Convention on Refugees to get its way." In January 2010, prior to the election that brought him to power in May 2010, Cameron said in response to
George Carey, the former
Archbishop of Canterbury, who worried about strain on the British tradition of hospitality: "In the last decade, net immigration in some years has been sort of 200,000, so implying a 2 million increase over a decade, which I think is too much. We would like to see net immigration in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands. I don't think that's unrealistic. That's the sort of figure it was in the 1990s and I think we should see that again." In February 2011, Cameron said in response to a question in the
House of Commons that too many children from immigrant families are not able to speak English when they start at school, that the parents of immigrant children had "a responsibility and an obligation" to ensure it, and that the UK must go further to ensure those settling learn English "so they can be more integrated into our country". He agreed parents should be responsible for making sure children speak English. Cameron also said: "If you look at the figures for the number of people who are brought over as husbands and wives, particularly from the Indian sub-continent, we should be putting in place – and we will be putting in place – tougher rules to make sure they do learn English and so when they come, if they come, they can be more integrated into our country." Also in February 2011, the
UK Border Agency was upbraided by an independent Government inspector because immigration staff were failing to take action against hundreds of migrant workers who have no right to stay in Britain. Chief Inspector John Vine reported that the visas of migrants whose jobs had ended were not being cancelled, and found that insufficient checks were being carried out on companies which sponsor overseas workers. In April 2011, Cameron delivered a speech on the government's immigration policy, which sparked a row with coalition partner Liberal Democrat Business Secretary
Vince Cable, and which he concluded as follows: "But with us, our borders will be under control and immigration will be at levels our country can manage. No ifs. No buts. That's a promise we made to the British people. And it's a promise we are keeping." It was reported by the
Office for National Statistics in August 2013 that the net number of immigrants arriving in Britain was 176,000 in the 12 months to the end of December 2012, up from 153,000 the previous year. In a speech in October 2013, Cameron said that schools must produce young people who are 'fully capable' of doing work in a manufacturing facility, a cap on the number of migrants from outside the EU was part of the government's attempt to substantially reduce levels of net migration, and: In May 2014, the Cameron government passed the
Immigration Act 2014. In her May 2014 appearance on the
Andrew Marr show,
Home Secretary Theresa May blamed the
Liberal Democrats coalition partners for the immigration target failure, when it was reported by the
Office for National Statistics that the net influx of immigrants had risen to 212,000 in the year to December 2013, from 177,000 the previous year. In November 2014, Home Secretary
Theresa May made clear government is preparing for public admission of failure to cut net migration to tens of thousands. The pledge made by Cameron to reduce annual net migration to below 100,000 during this parliament had "begun to publicly unravel"; May said that Cameron's "no ifs, no buts" passage in April 2011 was just a "comment" while another spokesman described it as an "objective". As the General Election of 2015 drew near, the ONS revealed an increase from 210,000 to 298,000 in the net number of immigrants taken in over the course of the year to September. The immigrant influx had risen in a "statistically significant" way to 624,000 in the year to September from 530,000 in the previous 12 months. There were significant increases in immigration of non-EU citizens, for whom a visa is required and over whom control is domestic, up 49,000 to 292,000. A journalist commented that "Today's figures are the final nail in the coffin for the promise made by Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to slash net migration to below 100,000 by the end of the current parliamentary term." An opposition politician said Mr Cameron's immigration target was "now in tatters".
Integration As early as May 2007 Cameron saw the Muslim community as a solution to family breakdown, crime and incivility: Cameron has argued passionately for limits in welfare payments and in favour of individual initiative. Alongside the tougher medical tests, he proposes requiring all people receiving
Jobseeker's Allowance to join a return to work programme and prevent people who refuse a job offer while on benefits from claiming for three years. People who claim benefits for two out of three years would be required to join a community work scheme. He strongly believed in the centrality of work to life and the duty of every citizen and resident to work full-time hours in either one full-time job or several part-time jobs from adolescence into old age. The
government's austerity programme, which involves reduction in government welfare spending, has been linked to a rise in food banks. A study published in
The British Medical Journal in 2015 found that each 1 percentage point increase in the rate of
Jobseeker's Allowance claimants sanctioned was associated with a 0.09 percentage point rise in food bank use. The austerity programme's welfare cuts have faced opposition from disability rights groups for disproportionately affecting disabled people. The
bedroom tax is an austerity measure that has attracted particular criticism, with activists arguing that two thirds of council houses affected by the policy are occupied with a person with a disability.
Welfare Reform and Work Bill One of these reforms was the
Welfare Reform and Work Bill, supported by
Iain Duncan Smith (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) and the
Conservative Party. Many people have criticised the bill, with some even going as far as to defining it as a "Pandora's box for Britain's poorest families". The cuts to tax credits have been criticised for unfairly disadvantaging the working poor, and a clause in the bill allows the benefits cap of £20,000 (£23,000 in London) to be reduced further, without any consultation with Parliament, thus making those from larger families even worse off.
Harriet Harman (then acting as Leader of the
Labour Party) ordered her Labour MPs to abstain from the vote for the bill as opposed to voting against it – a move which
United States-based magazine
The Nation said "underline[d] Labour's moral and intellectual bankruptcy". The former
Leader of the Labour Party,
Jeremy Corbyn, voted against the bill, alongside 48 Labour MPs who defied the orders of Harman. Other parties in opposition to the bill were the
Scottish National Party (who said that the Bill was "...an attack on civil society, it's an attack on our poorest and hard working families, and it's a regressive Bill that takes us back in time with cuts that will hit women and children the hardest"), the
Liberal Democrats, the Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland),
Plaid Cymru and the
Greens.
Poverty In 2006 Cameron described poverty as a "moral disgrace" and also promised to tackle
relative poverty. In 2007 Cameron promised, "We can make British poverty history, and we will make British poverty history". Also in 2007 he stated "Ending
child poverty is central to improving child well-being". The Cameron government plans welfare cuts which official government advisors warn are set to increase child poverty. The
Children's Commissioner expects the number of children in poverty to rise by roughly one million over five years.
Polly Toynbee claimed in
The Guardian that reductions in
child tax credits were likely to increase child poverty among working families with low wages. Anna Feuchtwang of the
National Children's Bureau claims too little was done to implement the Conservative
manifesto promise to give every child the best start in life. Gareth Jenkins of
Save the Children fears the effect cuts will have on
life chances of children in poor families, saying "Our biggest concern would be that increases in financial hardship for the poorest working families will only further worsen the chances of their children to do well at school and escape the circumstances they were born into – a key goal of the Conservative government." In 2015,
George Eaton writing in the
New Statesman claimed the two-year freeze in working-age benefits by the Cameron government will increase poverty among wage earners. He claimed that removal of
Housing Benefit for those between 18 and 25, reductions in housing benefit for people with spare bedrooms, caps on housing benefit and other changes will further add to poverty and
homelessness. For example, Jamie McCormack, who is
deaf and physically disabled, wrote in
The Independent that removing specialist advisers from
jobcentres and ending of funding for tailored support reduced his work opportunities. He also believes ending student maintenance grants prevents him going to university. According to him and Anoosh Chakelian of the
New Statesman, removal of 'the disability element of
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)' will cause stress and hardship to many disabled people. this has been criticised by anti-poverty campaigners as an unrealistic view of poverty in Britain today. ==Foreign policy==