The comeback kids: 13 best political resurrections ever

Thought you’d seen the last of David Cameron? Think again!

The former British prime minister’s jaw-dropping return to front-line politics on Monday morning was up there with the most Lazarus-like comebacks ever seen.

Cameron, however, certainly isn’t the first political big beast to salvage their career when all looked lost.

From Lenin to Napoleon to Silvio Berlusconi, we’ve rated the best political resurrections of all time.

*****

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ‘Lenin’

Exiled to Siberia for sedition, with a decade spent in Western Europe observing Russian politics from a distance, only to return, win a civil war, have an entire royal family shot, and found one of the two superpowers that defined the 20th century: Lenin may be the biggest comeback king (czar?) of all.

Cunning, ruthless, and with an impeccable sense of timing, Lenin dramatically changed the course of history.

The events he set in motion reverberate to this day — just think of the war between Russia and Ukraine, fought along borders that date back to Soviet times.

Lazarus rating: 5 out of 5

*****

Winston Churchill

Political revivals don’t get much more dramatic than returning from the wilderness to win the Battle of Britain and, eventually, the Second World War.

Churchill’s rows with his Conservative party over India and Britain’s appeasement of Nazi Germany kept him out of government for a full decade before World War II — until beleaguered Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain brought his rival into Cabinet after Adolf Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.

Churchill succeeded Chamberlain as PM soon after, where he became one of the U.K.’s most iconic leaders, leading the fightback against Hitler’s Nazis.

Though the victorious war leader was turfed out by the electorate in 1945, he had one more comeback in him — winning the 1951 election and returning to office for a final four years.

Lazarus rating: 5 out of 5

*****

Grover Cleveland

When Donald Trump seeks re-election to the White House next year, he will be looking to emulate the only other person to serve two nonconsecutive terms as U.S. President: Grover Cleveland.

In what is perhaps an auspicious sign for Trump, Cleveland also hailed from New York, where he served as governor. Less auspiciously, however, Cleveland was an anti-protectionist democrat, defeating his Republican rival in 1884.

But Cleveland returned to the White House after beating incumbent Benjamin Harrison in 1892 — returning to office just in time to oversee one of the worst financial crises in U.S. history a year later.

Lazarus rating: 2 out of 5

*****

Deng Xiaoping

The man who masterminded the brutal Tiananmen Square protests crackdown in 1989 was purged three times in his political career, twice by notorious Chairman Mao Zedong.

Deng was too “pragmatic” in his economic agenda for the ultra-left Mao, while he was also deemed too close to the chairman’s rivals. Mao sidelined him repeatedly, stripping him of senior positions in retribution.

It wasn’t until Mao died that Deng entered the political inner circle, turning the country from the ruins of the disastrous Cultural Revolution to economic reforms. His reaction to the Tiananmen protests, though, was heavily criticized by human rights advocates around the world, remaining a key feature of his mixed legacy.

Lazarus rating: 5 out of 5

*****

Rishi Sunak

Second chances are close to Rishi Sunak’s heart.

In September 2022, he was resoundingly defeated in the Conservative Party leadership contest, losing to Liz Truss. But her disastrous attempt to turbo-charge economic growth with radical tax cuts backfired and forced her resignation just a few weeks later. Sunak agreed to stand again and was crowned leader on October 24.

It was an incredible comeback to the biggest job of all. David Cameron would be proud.

Lazarus rating: 4 out of 5

*****

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd is a two-time former Australian prime minister. He lost his job the first time after heinous polling data (and his colleagues’ abject contempt) led to an internal coup within his Australian Labor Party in 2010.

He was defeated by his deputy, Julia Gillard — who herself spent three years in the hot seat, before flatlining polling saw her also overthrown … by Kevin Rudd.

Alas, Rudd 2.0 limped along as prime minister for a mere three months, at which point he was unceremoniously dumped — though this time, by the voting public, rather than in a backroom coup.

But that wasn’t it for the Australian comeback kid: He’s managed to land the plum gig as Canberra’s ambassador to the U.S.

Lazarus rating: 4 out of 5

*****

Napoleon Bonaparte

Facing a two-pronged invasion of Paris and the mutiny of his top generals, France’s Napoleon I abdicated at Fontainebleau in 1814. In exchange, he was given sovereignty over Elba — a small Mediterranean island — where he created a small army and improved agriculture, education and infrastructure.

But growing bored of the sun and relaxation, Napoleon escaped and returned to France. The thousands of troops sent to capture him did not fire a shot, and were won over by Napoleon who supposedly ripped open his coat and declared: “If any of you will shoot his Emperor, here I am.”

With King Louis XVIII having fled and with popular support on his side, Napoleon regained the throne. But this venture was cut short 100 days later, when he was thumped by the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo.

He was then exiled to St. Helena, died in 1821, and inspired ABBA’s first single.

Lazarus rating: 4 out of 5

*****

Silvio Berlusconi

The now-departed media tycoon and top Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi was no stranger to a comeback.

But perhaps the most sensational took place during Italy’s 2018 general election. After the country’s Supreme Court confirmed his conviction in 2014 for tax fraud — a sentence that disqualified him from holding public office for five years — he was listed and campaigned as leader of the “Forza Italia — Berlusconi Presidente” political group. You do the math.

He did not become prime minister in 2018, but the campaign helped re-re-re-re-re-launch his career, leading him to become an MEP in 2019 and a crucial kingmaker who helped Giorgia Meloni take over Italy in 2022.

Lazarus rating: 3 out of 5.

*****

Robert the Bruce

Scotland’s leader during the first war of independence with England overcame major defeats, a spell in hiding and some, err, legal troubles before returning to lead his nation to independence.

After initially fighting for the English — yes, really — Robert the Bruce became a key figure in Scotland’s revolt against its neighbors’ rule, as led by William Wallace. As he jostled for the Scottish throne in the early 1300s, Robert killed a key rival for the crown in a Dumfries church, a crime which saw him become an outlaw and something of an outcast.

He became king anyway, but was forced into hiding after a major defeat by the English. According to mythology, while in hiding on a island off Scotland’s West Coast he saw a persistent spider that wouldn’t give up on weaving its web — a vision that would inspire Robert I to return and fight for Scotland.

Years later he won a famous victory over England at Bannockburn, which set Scotland on the path to being independent again under Robert as king.

Lazarus rating: 4 out of 5

*****

Marius Furius Camillus

Marius Furius Camillus was responsible for a series of stunning (albeit brutal) victories over provincial rivals in the early 4th century BC that laid the groundwork for Rome’s subsequent domination of mainland Italy. But despite being awarded multiple Triumphs through the streets of the city, the high-born Consul was accused of misappropriating the spoils of war, earning him swift banishment from the capital — for life, supposedly.

Not that he was able to hold back for long. When a Gallic army invaded and sacked Rome, Camillus got his opportunity, returning at the 11th hour to drive off the invading hordes and reclaim the republic’s — and his own — honor.

To be sure, Camillus’s messianic return (and our Lazarus rating) may be only slightly diminished by the fact that it was probably concocted by later Roman historians trying to offset the embarrassing defeat at the hands of a bunch of Gauls.

Lazarus rating: 3 out of 5.

*****

Peter Mandelson

A key architect of Tony Blair’s electoral success in the 1990s, Mandelson earned the nickname the “prince of darkness” as he mercilessly revamped the U.K. Labour Party’s comms operation.

But he was forced to resign twice from Blair’s Cabinets amid controversy — only to be dramatically brought back into the fold in 2008 under his former Labour nemesis Gordon Brown.

The ailing premier handed Mandelson a peerage, as well as a beefed-up Cabinet job as business secretary and de facto deputy PM. It didn’t spare Brown the electoral abyss … at the hands of David Cameron. Who, he?

Lazarus rating: 2 out of 5

******

Charles De Gaulle

Charles De Gaulle’s first term as French leader already represented a comeback — as he returned from leading the World War II government in exile during to become president of the provisional government following the liberation in 1945.

De Gaulle resigned in January 1946, after falling out with lawmakers in the National Assembly. He spent the next 12 years out of power — “crossing the desert” as his wilderness years are called.

He was recalled to power at the age of 67 following an attempted military coup in French Algeria in 1958. He created the Fifth Republic, with the strong executive powers he had long sought. He became the first French president to be elected by direct universal suffrage the following year and remained in power until 1969.

Lazarus rating: 2 out of 5

*****

Alain Juppé

Alain Juppé was once the golden boy of the French gaullist party RPR, which he led in the 1990s. His mentor, President Jacques Chirac, appointed him prime minister on his election victory in 1995. But after two bumpy years and an electoral defeat, Juppé’s career took a turn for the worse when he was convicted in a fake job scandal at the Paris city hall.

Juppé went into a yearlong exile in Québec, with glossy magazines showing him lonely and snowbound in freezing Canada. But he made a triumphant comeback under Nicolas Sarkozy as a defense then foreign minister.

Juppé was considered the favorite when he ran for his party’s primary ahead of the 2017 presidential election. But to everyone’s surprise, he was badly beaten by another ex-premier, François Fillon … who then crashed and burned during the campaign over his own fake job scandal. That cleared the field for a certain Emmanuel Macron.

Lazarus rating: 2 out of 5

Carlo Martuscelli, Andrew McDonald, Joseph Bambridge, Stuart Lau, Tim Ross, Zoya Sheftalovich, Max Fahler, Giulia Poloni, Ben Munster, Matt Honeycombe-Foster, Pauline de Saint Remy, and Marion Solletty contributed reporting.