Revenge on Ashcroft over Cameron claims
LORD ASHCROFT is set to be dismissed as a government aide after his biography criticised David Cameron’s leadership of the military and accused him of “ineptitude” over the conflicts in Libya and Syria.
The Conservative peer has used a biography of the Prime Minister to make a series of “lurid” accusations about Mr Cameron.
The billionaire former Tory donor has admitted that he has “beef ” with Mr Cameron because he did not give him a “significant” job after the 2010 election.
Lord Ashcroft is still employed by the Government as Mr Cameron’s “special representative for veterans’ transition” and sources have suggested his position will now be reviewed. In the
latest extracts of the book, released in a newspaper, Lord Ashcroft quotes defence chiefs attacking Mr Cameron’s record in office.
In a damning assessment of Mr Cameron, General Sir David Richards said that he was forced to tell the Prime Minister that “being in the Combined Cadet Force at Eton” did not mean he was able to decide on military tactics.
Michael Ancram, the former Tory chairman, describes Libya as Mr Cameron’s “Iraq” because the country is now more dangerous than before the Prime Minister authorised a military intervention there.
Lord Ashcroft has also made a series of further claims about the Prime Minister’s involvement in hunting as well as allegations about members of Mr Cameron’s social circle. There were separate allegations in The
Sun newspaper that Mr Cameron was at a party where fellow guests took cocaine, while he was Prime Minister. He was “embarrassed” by it, but felt he could not speak out, the newspaper claimed.
In the book, entitled Call Me Dave, Lord Ashcroft claims Mr Cameron was part of a “dope smoking group” with friends while he studied at Oxford.
He alleges that Mr Cameron was a member of a “debauched” Oxford University society that engaged in “bizarre rituals and sexual excess”.
And he alleges that a pig’s head was produced by a member of the Piers Gaveston Society at an event and that Mr Cameron “inserted a private part of his anatomy into the animal’s mouth”.
Sources close to Mr Cameron last night moved to deny the “absurd” claims and described the claim about the pig’s head as “total c--p”.
Mr Cameron’s official spokesman has said she will not “dignify” the book “with any comment”.
Lord Ashcroft has admitted that he and his co-author could not prove the story about the pig’s head, but decided to include it in the book regardless.
One source said: “This is a man who didn’t get the job he wanted. Now he just looks like a rich guy who didn’t get his way and is deeply unhappy about it.”
Another friend of the Prime Minister said: “It’s salacious gossip that doesn’t appear to be being taken seriously in any way. It’s lurid nonsense.”
One Whitehall source said that Lord Ashcroft had been hoping to be given a job as a defence minister.
A former girlfriend of Mr Cameron also dismissed Lord Ashcroft’s claims. Catharine Snow, whom Mr Cameron dated in his first term, told The Daily
Telegraph how she teased him about his clean living and often joked that he was destined for Downing Street.
Ms Snow, 49, insisted Mr Cameron was never a member of a “debauched” Oxford University society. She said: “It’s a load of nonsense. I always teased him that he would be Prime Minister at Oxford because he just absolutely removed himself from anything.
“He was just completely straight – the straightest at Oxford. We used to give him hell.”
Valentine Guinness, one of the founders of the Piers Gaveston Society, also dismissed the claims in the book. He told
The Spectator: “It is a ridiculous story.”
Former Treasurer who had ‘a beef’ with Cameron is accused of inventing story about pig’s head in Oxford