David Cameron Quotes (1966-)

“You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers.”

“It is a complex subject: the Muslim Brotherhood comprises both a transnational network, with links in the UK, and national organisations in and outside the Islamic world. The movement is deliberately opaque, and habitually secretive.”

“We should together challenge the ludicrous conspiracy theories of the extremists. The world is not conspiring against Islam; the security services aren’t behind terrorist attacks; our new Prevent duty for schools is not about criminalising or spying on Muslim children. This is paranoia in the extreme.”

“They are killing and slaughtering thousands of people... they boast of their brutality... they claim to do this in the name of Islam, that is nonsense, Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims, they are monsters.”

“We just thought people in Yorkshire hated everyone else, we didn’t realise they hated each other so much.”

“Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”

“Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”

“One of the pleas you get when you're talking to the tourist industry or the energy industry or the whoever is, 'Please, can we just have the same minister for longer than five minutes?'”

“We should together challenge the ludicrous conspiracy theories of the extremists. The world is not conspiring against Islam; the security services aren’t behind terrorist attacks; our new Prevent duty for schools is not about criminalising or spying on Muslim children. This is paranoia in the extreme.”

“I think it was right to remove Saddam Hussein. I think it was the right decision then and I still think it was right now.”

“...President Assad, who is resorting to brutal military force against his own people and who is responsible for the situation, has lost all legitimacy and can no longer claim to lead the country. We call on him to face the reality of the complete rejection of his regime by the Syrian people and to step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people.”

“As we do all of this work to counter the Islamist extremist ideology, let’s also recognise that we will have to enter some pretty uncomfortable debates – especially cultural ones. Too often we have lacked the confidence to enforce our values, for fear of causing offence. The failure in the past to confront the horrors of forced marriage I view as a case in point. So is the utter brutality of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).”

“We have lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton. As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country, and I believe she'll go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister. Her legacy will be the fact she served her country so well, she saved our country and that she showed immense courage in doing so. And people will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably for centuries to come.”

“I don't know exactly what happened. He is a constituent of mine, he is a friend of mine, he is a huge talent. [...] I see that he said he regrets some of what happened. All I would say - because he is a talent and he does amuse and entertain so many people, including my children who'll be heartbroken if Top Gear is taken off air - I hope this can be sorted out because it is a great programme and he is a great talent. [On Clarkson's then suspension] I don't know what happened. Every organisation has to be able to be free to manage its talent and to say to people, 'you can do this', or 'you can't do that', so I don't want to interfere in the running of the BBC. [...] The Prime Minister has many responsibilities, sadly securing the future of Top Gear isn't one of them.”

“Turkey is a secular and democratic state. This is all the more reason to make Turkey feel welcome in Europe... This is something I feel very strongly and very passionately about. Together I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.”

“I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy.”

“[I want to] pave the road [for Turkey to join the EU], the country is vital for our economy, vital for our security and vital for our diplomacy”

“Too many people thought ‘I’ve paid my taxes, the state will look after everything’. But citizenship isn’t a transaction – in which you put your taxes in and get your services out. It’s a relationship – you’re part of something bigger than you, and it matters what you think and feel and do. So to get out of the mess we’re in, changing the government is not enough. We need to change the way we think about ourselves, and our role in society. Your country needs you.”

“He wants a Bill of Rights for Britain drafted by a Committee of Lawyers. Have you ever tried drafting anything with a Committee of Lawyers?”

“I'm sure he's got a very great many merits, but thus far they've been fairly effectively concealed from public view.”

“So what's happened to that twat David Cameron, who called it on? Let's be fair, how comes he can scuttle off? He called all this on, yeah, he called it on, where is he? He's in Europe, in Nice, with his trotters up, yeah, where is the geezer? I think he should be held account for it. He should be held account for it. Twat.”

“He seems content-free to me. Never had a job, except in PR, and it shows. People ask, "What do you think of him?" and my answer is: "He doesn't make me think."”

“As Europe struggled to recover from recession, in 2015 the British prime minister David Cameron tossed Brussels a grenade. He said he would hold a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership the following year. The torch of British Euroscepticism had passed from left to right. It was now Conservatives rather than Labour who were most anti-European. Cameron’s attempts to appease his ‘leave’ voters by negotiating reforms to the EU were dismissed by the ever cautious Merkel and, in June 2016, to Cameron’s surprise and dismay, the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the EU. The vote was taken as binding by the government. The date decided by Parliament for departure was March 2019.”

“His premiership will be defined, like Anthony Eden's, by a single disastrous decision. Unlike the Suez debacle, however, Cameron's misjudgement has caused a rupture not just with Britain's most important ally but with all our allies simultaneously.”