Who stabbed who first? Dave and Ashcroft trade very pointed jibes
DAVID Cameron has delivered a barbed riposte to his biographer Lord Ashcroft – accusing the Tory peer of stabbing him in the back.
The Prime Minister appeared to make light of lurid claims from the book published this week by the Mail, while making his views about the author clear.
In a speech to Tory donors on Monday night, he used a joke about a trip to the doctor to summarise his feelings about the day when claims about university high jinks and drug-taking became public.
Comparing the fallout from the book to an injection, he said it involved ‘a little prick’ and ‘just a stab in the back’.
When the comments became public, Lord Ashcroft hit back immediately on Twitter, once again accusing Mr Cameron of breaking a promise to give him a ministerial job after the 2010 election. He wrote: ‘Good to see PM retains his sense of humour. We must have the same doctor. I had the same in 2010 when the PM reneged.’
The book contains allegations of drugtaking by Mr Cameron in his student days and reports a source who alleges the future Prime Minister inserted a private part of his anatomy into a dead pig’s mouth during an initiation ceremony for an Oxford University dining society.
Downing Street has refused to comment directly on the claims but has suggested Lord Ashcroft wanted revenge.
Friends of the Prime Minister have criticised Call Me Dave, which was written by the peer with journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
Mr Cameron gave a clear indication of his feelings at the party event on Monday.
According to James Landale, the BBC’s deputy political editor, the PM spoke about the book at a fundraising dinner at the Carlton Club in central London.
Mr Cameron told the 300 guests he had needed to go to hospital earlier in the day for a bad back caused by chopping wood energetically at the weekend.
He said the doctor told him he would need an injection and asked him to lie on his front, adding: ‘This will just be a little prick, just a stab in the back.’
This, the Prime Minister added, ‘rather summed up my day’.