In an explosive new book, former Conservative Party treasurer Lord Ashcroft alleges that David Cameron smoked drugs and took part in a debauched initiation ceremony for a notorious Oxford society, but Number 10 says it ‘does not recognise’ the claims.
In sections of the book, entitled ‘Call Me Dave’, published in the Daily Mail ahead of its release, Ashcroft also accuses the prime minister allowing cocaine in his London home and misleading the public over the non-dom status of the Tory peer.
The allegation has been denied by Cameron’s aides, but Number 10 has chosen ‘not to dignify’ the allegations with an official statement.
Cameron has never denied using cocaine or smoking marijuana, saying he had a “normal” university experience at Oxford, but claims to have not used drugs since becoming an MP.
However, it is Ashcroft’s claim that Cameron put a “private part of his anatomy” in the mouth of a dead pig’s head in an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society, named after the alleged lover of Edward II, which has resulted in the most headlines.
A photograph of the event is said to exist, but the owner of the image has reportedly refused all efforts to secure it. Ashcroft does say that the story could be “a case of mistaken identity”, but claim that the story is too detailed for “an otherwise credible figure to invent”.
If an image of the act does exist, selling or distributing it would likely fall foul of the UK’s obscenity laws, which carries a possible prison sentence of up to three years.
David Cameron once considered Lord Ashcroft a friend, but the two fell out after Ashcroft was snubbed for a position in the 2010 coalition government, and Ashcroft has taken his revenge by co-writing an unofficial biography of the prime minister with journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
