Lord Ashcroft's David Cameron biography brought forward a week to coincide with Tory party conference
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Version 0 of 1. The book containing debauched revelations about David Cameron’s life as a student will now be published to clash with the Conservative party conference – a week earlier than planned. It signals a deepening of the feud between the Prime Minister and the former deputy chairman of the Tory party Lord Ashcroft, who co-authored the unauthorised biography Call Me Dave with journalist Isabel Oakeshott. The book generated international headlines last week with claims that Mr Cameron smoked cannabis at university, allowed cocaine at parties he hosted at his London home and alleged that he knew about Lord Ashcroft’s controversial non-dom status a year before he has previously said he did. But the most bizarre allegation made by in the book was a contemporary of Mr Cameron at Oxford University who also went onto become an MP who claimed he put “a private part of his anatomy” into a dead pig’s mouth. Mr Cameron publicly denied the allegation for the first time on Sunday, hitting back at Lord Ashcroft by suggesting he had used the book to exact revenge on him after he failed to offer the former Tory donor a senior job in the Coalition Government in 2010. Asked directly about the dead pig allegation by a journalist during a flight to New York on Sunday, Mr Cameron said: “I can see why the book was written and I think everyone can see straight through it. “As for the specific issue raised, a very specific denial was made a week ago and I've nothing to add to that.” By bringing forward the publication date, it will be seen as Lord Ashcroft declaring war on the Conservative leader as he attempts to maximise the embarrassment on him at a time when he will be hoping to generate positive headlines from the Conservative party conference in Manchester. |