British Vogue’s Emily slams the May issue

AS THE dust settles on the Age of Cameron, the couture gloves are off for Emily S hef f i e l d, deput y e di t or of Vogue. Writing in this week’s Spectator, the former Prime Minister’s sister-inlaw pulls no punches.

The weekend after the EU referendum was a particularly taxing time for her, featuring “moments when I stood in a corner of my bedroom, unable to control the ricochets of fury; resisting the urge to throw eggs at Steve Hilton’s door, two streets away”. But David Cameron’s former adviser isn’t the only one who comes in for a lashing.

Sheffield recalls a conversation with Sarah Vine, columnist and wife of Michael Gove. Watching the savagery of the early s t a ge s o f t h e To r y leadership contest, she was reminded of “surprising statements” made “at Chequers three years before, with Gove listening”, and worried that they might be “nightmarishly coming true”. The Londoner re p o r t e d o n c a mpai g n rumblings in May but was Gove’s leadership bid really three years in the making?

“What I deplore most,” says Sheffield, with a hint of a dig at the new Prime M i n i s t e r, “is the current casual denigration of his g o v e r n me n t ’s achievements”, listing the Northern Powerhouse and prison reform to counter the “suggestion that the reign of the Cameroons was about posh boys with vanity projects”.

While Theresa May once said on Desert Island Discs that her luxury item would be a lifetime subscription to Vogue, Sheffield might not feel so fondly in return. “They will come for you, I a m a f r a i d, one day, Pr i me Minister, like they did for Thatcher, Blair and Brown.” Who knew Vogue was such a political hotbed?