A TALE OF TWO EX-LEADERS
Cameron cashes in with a talk to billionaire bankers in Las Vegas...
... as Ed calls the numbers in a bingo hall
HE took a gamble and lost his premiership on the Brexit referendum.
But David Cameron looked like he had hit the jackpot as he cashed in with a speech to bankers in Las Vegas.
As Theresa May prepared to rip up some of his controversial policies from his 2015 manifesto, Mr Cameron was at a conference for hedge fund managers at the opulent Bellagio hotel and casino.
Bankers from firms including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock paid up to $7,500 a ticket (£5,800) to hear the former prime minister, who commands as much as £120,000 an hour on the lucrative speaking circuit, on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, former Labour leader Ed Miliband found himself calling the numbers at the bingo in his Doncaster North constituency in South Yorkshire. His time in the bingo hall did prove unlucky for some – the traditional call for number 13 – as he stumbled over his announcements.
Mr Miliband, 47, started surely enough, navigating his way past ‘All the threes, thirty-three’, ‘on its own, number seven’ and ‘five and eight, fifty-eight’.
But calling one of the last numbers, he said simply ‘19’ before promptly correcting himself: ‘Sorry... one and nine, 19.’
The players on the floor of the hall could be heard giggling at the mistake in a clip posted online.
Mr Cameron, meanwhile, was interviewed by David Rubenstein, co-founder of investment firm The Carlyle Group, which has £130billion of assets. Mr Rubenstein has a net worth of £2billion, according to Forbes. Mr Cameron reportedly told the wealthy audience: ‘In politics you have to have two things above all else – you’ve got to have credibility, you’ve got to have passion.’
The event in the hotel’s grand ballroom was billed as ‘Across the Pond – A Conversation with Prime Minister David M. Cameron.’ His name appeared to have been written incorrectly as his middle names are William Donald.
One attendee wrote on Twitter that after his speech, Mr Cameron stayed to enjoy a flamenco band. He wrote: ‘Great performance by the Gipsy Kings tonight – even cooler to look over and see David Cameron take in the tunes amongst the crowd.’
Other speakers at the glitzy conference included former US vice-president Joe Biden and boxer Mike Tyson. Tony Blair, former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy have been previous guests.
Since resigning as prime minister last June, Mr Cameron has made speeches around the world, including at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year.
Mrs May has scrapped Mr Cameron’s 2015 manifesto promise not to hike income tax, national insurance or VAT. One of his Downing Street advisers last year admitted the ‘tax lock’ had been ‘cooked up on the hoof’ to fill a policy ‘vacuum’ in the final weeks of the campaign, in a bid to outflank Labour.
Ameet Gill, who was the former prime minister’s head of strategic communications, told BBC Radio 4 in October that it was ‘probably the dumbest economic policy’ possible.