Andrew Pierce
SITTING in a crowded cafe at London’s City Airport, the well-spoken traveller sipping his coffee attracted occasional curious glances from fellow passengers. Locked in conversation with a male companion, he wore an open-necked shirt and dark suit. It was David Cameron about to embark on another holiday.
Back in his Downing Street pomp, Cameron would arrive only minutes before take-off and be whisked straight through the VIP lounge into a front seat.
But, 12 months on from the day his premiership ended in tears with the historic vote to leave the EU, the former PM had to join the British Airways queue to board the flight to Malaga.
Cameron, his wife Samantha and their three children, Nancy, Elwen and Florence, are staying in a stunning villa in Andalusia. It is owned by Janetta Parlade, a cousin of Samantha, whose late husband Jaime was a leading Spanish interior designer.
The villa, in the style of a British country house, has gardens which boast terraces, wisteria-covered pergolas, cypresses, olive and citrus groves, as well as a discreetly sited swimming pool.
Also at the villa are Samantha’s brother Rob Sheffield, the flamboyant heir to his father’s baronetcy, and her sister Emily Sheffield, deputy editor of British Vogue.
On Thursday, Cameron and Samantha celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary, marking the occasion with a bizarre Instagram photo of their naked feet as they lay on the bed in the picturesque villa. It’s not the first instance of Cameron’s increasingly quirky behaviour. Last month, the 50-year-old and his wife joined friends at a private club where a naked female burlesque dancer wearing just a necklace performed an X-rated cabaret act.
The cabaret was at Soho Farmhouse in Great Tew, Oxfordshire, frequented by Prince Harry, David Beckham and many of Cameron’s beloved Chipping Norton set. A male stripper performed a balancing act upside down.
At another party, Cameron was pictured with Rob Sheffield’s saucily dressed ex-girlfriend Sophia Hesketh, daughter of Tory grandee Lord Hesketh, who posted the snap on Instagram with the words ‘Total legend’.
Cameron was also photographed recently in the Oxford Street branch of JD Sports in London buying a multi-pack of white sports socks.
He took them to the cash desk, where he realised he had bought the wrong size and went back to swap them.
He then allegedly pushed past ten patiently queueing shoppers to reach the pay desk again, muttering loudly that he was going to be late for an appointment with Barack Obama, the former U.S. President.
A shopper who filmed Cameron approached his two bodyguards, saying: ‘You can’t push me. JD Sports is a public place.’ Cameron’s bodyguard replied: ‘Nobody is pushing you,’ before Cameron left, saying: ‘I think we have to skip this.’
After the incident, he was mercilessly mocked on Twitter. ‘Lo how the mighty hath fallen,’ said one person, while another tweeted: ‘You are nobody now. To the back of the queue!’
Yet another added: ‘Typical Conservatives as David Cameron jumps the queue.’
For Cameron, this Andalusian villa is a refuge from the General Election, which is a constant reminder of his ignominious departure from Downing Street.
To help distract him, he has packed his tennis rackets. Cameron was once a leading figure in the Westminster tennis team and has taken up the sport with renewed passion since leaving office — hence the need to purchase sports socks at JD Sports.
Although the holiday was planned before Theresa May’s surprise election announcement, friends say Cameron is struggling to cope as polling day nears. Not since he was an unsuccessful candidate in Stafford in 1997 has Cameron been so removed from a Tory campaign.
He was finally elected as an MP in 2001, and as Tory leader in the 2010 and 2015 elections he was, of course, in the thick of the action. During May, Cameron was spotted on the campaign trail only once — in Crewe and Nantwich. He was backing his friend Edward Timpson, the Children’s Minister, who is defending a 3,620 majority.
The constituency was the scene of Cameron’s best
‘It’s hard for him not to be in the election’