Cameron’s premature but “delightfully waspish” biography

Anthony Seldon may be a "peerless biographer", but his latest work, Cameron at 10, is not the "definitive" account of his first term, says Clare Foges in The Times history "cannot be fully written while the drama is still being played out". History has "delivered a contrary verdict on many political decisions that seemed good or bad at the time", from the 1990 decision to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (disastrous) to devolution, laughably heralded at the time as a way of killing off Scottish nationalism. When it comes to David Cameron's big decisions the pace of deficit reduction, welfare reform, action in Libya and Syria, the EU referendum it is "far too early to judge".

So what does Seldon's biography tell us? It explores the tensions between Cameron and senior colleagues, including Boris Johnson, once the favourite to succeed him but now lagging in fifth place, with George Osborne comfortably in the lead, according to this week's poll by Conservative Home. Cameron is said to have become so concerned that a bumbling Johnson would cost the Tories the election that he told him to "f***king shut up" in a text message. Meanwhile, Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, former chief of the defence staff, claimed that if Cameron had actually put "boots on the ground in Syria", the Tories wouldn't be "where they are with Isis".

Then there's his relationship with Osborne, says The Guardian's Patrick Barkham. The two are "plainly not at war" in the way that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were, but Cameron is said to have been critical of Osborne after his "omnishambles" Budget of 2012. Osborne also allegedly tried to persuade the prime minister not to hold a referendum on the EU because of fears the public would vote to leave. The claim has been derided by Osborne's spokesman, but it makes sense to me, says Fraser Nelson on his Spectator blog. Osborne's objective is to succeed Cameron, and the referendum is "now his greatest threat".

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