The launch party for Call Me Dave proved to be an eventful affair as it was revealed that Lord Ashcroft was unable to attend after falling critically ill around the time of the book’s launch. As guests munched on cocktail sausages and sipped champagne, his co-author Isabel Oakeshott took to the stage to give a speech.
To kick things off, Oakeshott recalled David Cameron’s advise to her when she first planned to help Ashcroft write the biography. Oakeshott, who was the Sunday Times political editor at the time, says he warned her against joining the project:
‘We had a conversation about my plans to help Michael with his book, I recently looked at the transcript of our conversation and was struck by his dark warnings about me getting involved. ‘I’m just worried you’ll get caught up in some great battle against me and Michael Ashcroft, I really fear for you’
With Oakeshott insisting that she ‘absolutely’ does not regret joining the project, she went on to take a dig at Cameron over his attitude to all biographies, rather than just her own. Oakeshott claims that Cameron described the 2012 biography Cameron: Practically a Conservative as ‘a piece of s—‘:
‘Well yes it has been controversial and looking back at that conversation I had with Cameron two years ago, I was struck by the way he described the only other biography of himself which is a very fine piece of work by Francis Elliott, now Political Editor of the Times, and the Independent’s James Hanning.
I asked Cameron that time if he liked the book. His reply was — and I’m sorry for the language but these were the exact words — ‘no, it’s a piece of s—‘ – and that was a book that he had asked everyone around him to cooperate with.’
As for her own efforts? Well, while Cameron has widely trashed the book following its piggate allegations, Oakeshott says that he told her he would ‘trash it whatever we said’:
‘He went on to say – quite politely – that he wouldn’t cooperate with our book and furthermore, he would trash it whatever it said.
So I brush this off but it did show what we were up against and he did exactly what he said he would do and I must say I don’t really blame him, this is politics.’
Although Cameron may be feeling less forgiving, it seems that not all Tories hold a grudge. While Ukip politicians — including Nigel Farage and Suzanne Evans — attended the bash, they were also joined by Alan Duncan, Owen Paterson and Andrew Mitchell. Whatever will Dave say?
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