John McCain on David Cameron

30 September 2006

In this exclusive interview, the Republican presidential front-runner tells Matthew d’Ancona why he is speaking at the Conservative conference, and says that Cameron has the youth, exuberance and determination to be a Tory JFK

One of the greatest obstacles facing Mr Cameron, and indeed any party leader, is the calamitous draining of trust from the political system. This, too, is something that has preoccupied the Senator for many years — and for deeply personal reasons. Shortly after his election to the Upper House in 1986 Mr McCain was embroiled in a banking scandal as one of the so-called ‘Keating Five’. It is probable that, as the only Republican among the five senators investigated, he was only included in the first place for partisan reasons — and he was, in any case, exonerated after two years. But the experience was intolerable for a man who prizes honour above all else — the scion of a military dynasty that can trace its martial history back to 1764 and the Battle of Back Creek against the Indians. Indeed, Mr McCain has often said that the ‘public humiliation’ of the inquiry was a greater hardship than his five and half years as a PoW.

His response was to immerse himself in cleaning up campaign finance, a cause to which he has been passionately devoted for two decades. Again, he believes that the new generation of Tories shares this preoccupation.

‘I have seen in them an attempt to restore confidence in voters that ethics, clean government, influence of money are priorities, and the influence of money and campaign contributions can be absolutely minimised so that there is less representation by the special interests, and more by the general populace. That is clearly an important issue in the United States, and it’s obvious that there’s been some scandals in the Labour government. I think it resonates both among American voters and British voters — a commitment to ethical behaviour in government. And that includes the way you do business, who has access to the government and, most of all, votes.’