This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Cameron leaves Downing Street – and moves into £16m house in Notting Hill
David Cameron moves into £16m mansion in Notting Hill after quitting as Prime Minister
(about 1 hour later)
In a plush part of west London where Holland Park turns into Notting Hill, a team of armed police officers stand guard. They arrived last night in a flurry of activity, driving the red response cars of the Diplomatic Protection Group.
The Cameron family’s new home away from Downing Street is a £16m Holland Park mansion, owned by their financial PR friend Alan Parker.
They’ve been hanging around on the front doorstep of Tony Blair’s place off the Edgware Road for almost a decade. But now they've moved on to protect David Cameron in his new digs – a £16m mansion owned by a family friend.
Having spent the night the under armed guard of the Diplomatic Protection Group (who also guard Tony Blair’s doorstep nearby), Mr Cameron emerged this morning and stepped into a waiting Range Rover.
As sudden falls from grace go, landing in a luxury mansion will have softened the blow. And the neighbourhood isn't too bad either - the average house price is more than £6m in this part of town.
“There are some people around here who are up their own ****" but I don't think the Camerons are like that,” said a neighbour who asked not to be named. “They're relaxed and chilled people.
One of Mr Cameron's new neighbours, who asked to remain anonymous, said she didn't know anything about the move until last night.
"It's a very family friendly street. There's a lot of children around here, I’m sure we'll be looking out for them too."
"There are some people around here who are up their own ****" but I don't think the Camerons are like that. They're relaxed and chilled people," she said.
The Camerons are not expected to stay there long, perhaps just until their three children have finished school for the year.
"It's a very family friendly street. There's a lot of children around here, I'm sure we'll be looking out for them too."
Their own home in Kensington is being rented out, but they have another home in Cameron’s constituency in Witney, Oxfordshire.
On Cameron's resignation, the neighbour - who voted for Brexit - added: "When you're the leader of a team you have to take responsibility for the team, you can't say one thing and then jump ship.
One of their new neighbours, who voted to leave the EU, added: "When you're the leader of a team you have to take responsibility for the team, you can't say one thing and then jump ship.
"Cameron had to stand down or it would have looked like a bit of a dictatorship."
"Cameron had to stand down or it would have looked like a bit of a dictatorship."
Lord and Lady Sainsbury are understood to live in the area, and Robbie Williams used to. Madonna apparently once tried to buy a house but was unsuccessful.
They are at least back within walking distance of their favourite Notting Hill restaurants, and their old ‘Notting Hill set’ friends too, even if the demographic of that particular group has shifted dramatically during Mr Cameron’s six years at Number 10.
Yet somewhat bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood is the large building site directly opposite the Camerons' new home.
Michael Gove and his wife, Sarah, were regular dining companions. Since Mr Gove campaigned for Brexit, bringing down his friend’s career and, inadvertently, his own, the two families are no longer on speaking terms.
A large mansion, which has reportedly been under construction for two and a half years already, is creating something of an eyesore and will only be finished in May next year.
The other staple was Steve Hilton, who along with Mr Gove was godfather to the Cameron’s son Ivan, who died in 2009. But he returned from California with a book to sell, and embarked on a lengthy pro-Brexit media tour.
But it’s possible, via their new lodgings, the Camerons might make an unlikely new friendship. It is nine years since Alan Parker’s wedding, in March 2007, attended by both the then leader of the opposition David Cameron, and Mr Parker’s longstanding friend Sarah Brown, and her husband Gordon.
Earlier, when Mr Cameron emerged from behind the Number 10 door, into a gathering storm and under the usual whirr of the helicopters, his wife Samantha and their three children came out too, as Gordon Brown’s had done. A first full exposure for little lives nonetheless lived under the glare of the public spotlight. Florence Cameron, not yet six, knows no other life, no other home than this, the grandest one of all. She had once, he said, when dad was off on a foreign trip, climbed into his red box and said, "Take me with you."
It was hard, in such circumstances, not to think of the fourth child, Ivan, who died in 2009. His ghostly presence a reminder of other ghosts that lurked. His godparents, Michael Gove and Steve Hilton, who had done so much to sabotage the life of their friend. And their country too, it is now so plainly obvious. One had the unswerving zeal of the reformist. The other had a book to sell. Both depart the scene with little success and even less dignity.
“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve our country as Prime Minister over these last six years,” he said, his voice never cracking in the way it had done on that rarefied morning not yet three weeks ago, “And to serve as leader of my party for almost eleven years.”
It was a show of great dignity. The great class act in public life for more than decade. But he leaves his country in the thrall of its greatest crisis in generations. And he leaves his party back in the thrall of the paleolithic forces from which he once rescued it.
As the door of the Prime Ministerial Jaguar clicked shut, the kids following on behind, the gates of Downing Street swung open and a loud chorus of boos rang out.
All political careers end in failure, it is often said. Certainly the successful ones do. But rarely as brutal or as total as this. The consequences, though not yet clear, are profound and inevitable. And none more certain than the arrival, on foot, two and half hours later, of an ambulant barrel under a mess of blonde hair, walking in the other direction, and heading through that same old door.
