Leadsom’s campaign chief is her old flame

But why DID he call her by the pet name TW?

AS the campaign manager for tory leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom, MP tim Loughton has said his side is ‘under strict instructions to focus relentlessly on [the] positives of why Andrea is the best choice for Britain’.

Leadsom’s growing band of supporters may not realise, however, just how deep an admirer Loughton really is. I hear the pair are old flames. ‘they were an item at Warwick University in the eighties,’ claims a contemporary. ‘he was secretary of the university’s Conservative Association and he encouraged Andrea to join.

‘It was quite a brave thing to do because Warwick was a hotbed of Leftie, anti-thatcher feeling at the time.’

While David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson were all members of the notorious Bullingdon Club at Oxford, Andrea joined a less rowdy society.

‘[Andrea and tim] were both members of a black-tie dining club called the Patricians,’ says my source. ‘the club would meet

for grand dinners at a hotel in Leamington Spa.’

He adds: ‘The most curious aspect of their relationship was that Loughton would refer to her by the initials “TW”. No one knew why, but soon, other people started copying Tim and calling her TW as well.’

Andrea, 53, whose maiden name was Salmon, split up with Loughton, 54, and in 1993 went on to marry fellow investment banker Ben Leadsom, with whom she has two sons and a daughter.

Loughton, meanwhile, married Elizabeth MacLauchlan the previous year and together they have a son and two daughters. Both the MPs enjoyed successful careers in the City of London before entering politics and becoming Tory ministers.

Andrea’s marriage has come under scrutiny because she has used devices that could reduce the tax contribution associated with her family assets and accepted donations from businesses with roots in overseas tax havens.

Her financial arrangements first came to light when details were disclosed about a buy-to-let company she created with her husband.

But the most intriguing mystery is what those TW initials stand for. A bottle of fizz for any reader who can enlighten me.