Former UK Prime Ministers Face Uncertain Future Post-Office
While former UK prime ministers receive £115,000 annually for life, along with a permanent security detail and expectations to attend Remembrance Sunday commemorations at the Cenotaph, they hold no official obligations or comparable structures akin to U.S. presidential libraries that would promote their legacies, reports 24brussels.
This situation has resulted in previous leaders feeling sidelined. “There is a resource that the country could benefit from using … in some way,” says Wood. “These people did serve us and serve our country,” agrees Dunn. “If they were to disappear into lonely retirement, that would be wrong.”
For some former prime ministers, the traditional avenue of writing memoirs and engaging in public speaking no longer suffices.
Modern leaders often choose not to consult their predecessors, according to Seldon, indicating a pattern where current officials do not consider the actions of those who held the office before them. “They justifiably see their successors falling into the same bear traps that they fell in,” he adds.
Even John Major, the typically reserved Conservative former PM who largely stayed out of the public eye during Blair and Brown’s administrations, re-emerged during the tumultuous Brexit years. He became an outspoken critic of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling for the strengthening of parliamentary standards for rule breakers.
Theresa May has also made her voice heard, urging the UK to focus on delivering net zero goals, while David Cameron executed a notable return to politics, serving as foreign secretary during the last eight months of the Tory government.
