It has emerged that the current Prime Minister Theresa May, plans to nominate David Cameron to be the next secretary-general of Nato.
The former Prime Minister is reportedly being lined up as the UK candidate to replace the current secretary general, former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg who plans to step down in 2018/19.
Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, has stated the importance of the UK having a more prominent role in Nato following the Brexit vote earlier this year.
“It’s a disappointment we’re leaving the European Union because in my view it does add to what Nato gives us. But Nato is the cornerstone of our defence and what we’ll be telling other leaders is we’ll be doing more in Nato to compensate for our withdrawal from the EU.
“We’ll be leading harder into the alliance and that’s the purpose of the deployments we’re announcing today.”
Friends of David Cameron have suggested that he would be interested in the tax-free role, which pays €260,624 (£222,019).
One said: “The key at this stage is to flag high-level interest in leader level conversations and to show that our eventual candidate is visible and acceptable to everyone. That means a would-be candidate would need to start talking about the right issues and show up at various conferences such as the Munich Security Conference and Davos.”
A senior Cabinet minister told the Daily Mail: “We’ve got to find a role for him – he has so much to offer. We have got to get him batting for Britain again.”
The role of Nato Secretary General has been filled by Britain three times in the past. Lord Ismay served as the first general secretary from 1952 to 1957, then Lord Carrington from 1984 to 1988 and most recently Lord Robertson took the role from 1999 to 2003.