Cameroons at war over diarist Sasha Swire wedding snub
SASHA SWIRE caused explosive reactions among David Cameron’s usually restrained set last year when she released her gloriously indiscreet memoirs, Diary Of An MP’s Wife.
In the book, she disclosed the most intimate details of her relationships with friends of her Old Etonian husband, the former minister Sir Hugo Swire.
Now, hostilities have been reignited by the forthcoming wedding of a key member of their set: Lord (Greg) Barker, the ex-energy minister.
He’s due to join the exclusive and bohemian group of men who have been married to members of both sexes. Having divorced his wife, brewery heiress Celeste Harrison, in 2006, Lord Barker, 55, is now engaged to public relations executive George Prassas, 37.
The couple invited Sir Hugo to their wedding — but not his wife Sasha
‘Hugo was furious,’ a mutual pal tells me. ‘He said to them: “I’m not going to go without Sasha”, but they refused to change their minds. It’s caused huge ructions. Some friends are on the side of Greg and George; others think they should forgive Sasha.’
Barker is said to have been left deeply shocked by Sasha’s book and saddened that she wrote about private times they spent together as friends. Not only did she mock the camp and extravagant Barker for his attempts to get in with the huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’ set, writing that he was ‘swathed in the very latest and finest tweeds’ for a shoot in Norfolk but ‘was seen waving his gun at everything that moved and firing furiously at the slightest movement, but all to no avail’.
Sasha, 58, also skewered him for his close connection to controversial Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. She points out how Barker defended Deripaska from U.S. sanctions after being hired by the Russian’s firm, EN+, noting: ‘As a British peer, he added respectability to the conglomerate.’
The Swires remained tight-lipped when I ask about the snub. Barker refuses to comment on the details of his guest list, but tells me: ‘The wedding has been postponed due to the pandemic.’
Perhaps Cameron should give them a ring and tell them all to stop squabbling?