Revenge! Drugs, debauchery and the book that lays Dave bare: How PM's snub to billionaire who funded the Tories for years sparked the most explosive political book of the decade

• Read our exclusive serialisation of Lord Ashcroft's book Call Me Dave
• It makes allegations of drug taking and debauchery by David Cameron
• Suggests he knew in 2009 Lord Ashcroft was controversial 'non dom'
• PM once 'put a private part of his anatomy' into dead pig, source claims

By James Slack, Home Affairs Editor for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:00 EST, 20 September 2015 | Updated: 03:13 EST, 21 September 2015

Today we lift the lid on the extraordinary feud between David Cameron and a billionaire Tory donor that has triggered the most explosive political biography of the decade.

In the dynamite book, former party treasurer Lord Ashcroft makes allegations of drug taking and debauchery by a young Mr Cameron.

The book also claims the Conservative leader was aware as early as 2009 that Lord Ashcroft was a controversial ‘non dom’ who did not pay UK tax on his overseas earnings.

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Dynamite book: An extraordinary feud between David Cameron and billionaire Tory donor Lord Ashcroft has triggered the most explosive political biography of the decade

Mr Cameron has previously said he did not know until 2010 about the tax status of a man who had given his party £8million – suggesting the public was deliberately misled in the run-up to that year’s general election.

The pair fell out, the book reveals, when the Prime Minister failed to honour a pledge to give Lord Ashcroft a ‘significant’ job if he won power.

In the wake of this split, the peer has penned Call Me Dave. It is co-written by Isabel Oakeshott, an award-winning journalist and former Sunday Times political editor.

Today the Mail starts serialising the biography, which is based on hundreds of interviews with friends and enemies, including Downing Street insiders. 

Party time: David Cameron (centre) dances at the Pitt Club Ball at Cambridge University in 1987

On Day One, the book claims that:

• Mr Cameron was a member of a ‘dope smoking group’ called the Flam Club at Oxford University;
• Cocaine was later allowed to circulate at his and his wife’s London home;
• Mr Cameron was also in a debauched Oxford society that specialises in ‘bizarre rituals and sexual excess’;
• The book reports a source who claims that during Mr Cameron’s initiation ceremony he ‘put a private part of his anatomy’ into a dead pig’s mouth. Furthermore, the source claims to have seen photographic evidence;
• Lynton Crosby, the pollster who guided the PM to electoral victory, privately thinks he is a ‘tosser’ and ‘posh ****’.

Published next month, the book sheds new light on Mr Cameron’s journey from privileged student at Eton and Oxford to Number 10, via a career in PR where he made significant enemies.

Tories: For the first five years of Mr Cameron’s (right) leadership, Lord Ashcroft (left) was deputy chairman of the Tory party. They are pictured together at a book launch in London in November 2006

James Delingpole, a friend of Mr Cameron’s at Oxford, gives the first ever on-the-record account of drug taking by the future prime minister.

Friend: James Delingpole gives the an on-the-record account of drug taking by the future prime minister

He says they smoked cannabis together in Delingpole’s room at Christ Church College, often while listening to the 1970s rock band Supertramp. Mr Delingpole says: ‘My drug of choice was weed – and I smoked weed with Dave…’

For the first time, the book tells of Mr Cameron’s membership of a decadent Oxford dining society, known as the Piers Gaveston.

This was in addition to his time spent with the Bullingdon Club, a drinking society for the super-rich notorious for bad behaviour and trashing restaurants.

The authors report an account of an ‘outrageous initiation ceremony’ at a Piers Gaveston event at which the future prime minister ‘inserted a private part of his anatomy’ into a dead pig’s mouth.

The story was recounted to them by a contemporary of Mr Cameron who went on to become an MP – and who claims that another member of the group has photographic evidence to prove it.

The unnamed individual said to possess the picture failed to respond to the authors’ approaches.

For years, there has been fevered speculation at Westminster about the split between the PM and Lord Ashcroft, a man who was once integral to the Tory party machine – helping to save it from financial disaster and having an office next to Mr Cameron in CCHQ.

But today is the first time the self-made businessman, who has donated vast sums to charity, lays bare what happened.

Discussions: Mr Cameron (left) invited Lord Ashcroft to Chequers where he said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg (right) was blocking his appointment to a Coalition role

He writes in the book’s preface: ‘Long after he became prime minister, the impression persisted that he was more interested in holding the office than in using its power to achieve anything in particular.

‘His laissez-faire approach can create the impression that he is insufficiently concerned by results, and more than once he has appeared so relaxed that he has only stirred to avert disaster at the last minute. But my own particular beef with him is more personal.’

For the first five years of Mr Cameron’s leadership, Lord Ashcroft was deputy chairman of the Tory party.

Significantly, in the run-up to the 2010 election, he was based inside Conservative Central Office – spending millions on a campaign to target and win key marginal seats.

Lord Ashcroft, who says he has contemporaneous notes of his conversations with the PM, says a discussion took place between them over what role he would play if Mr Cameron was elected, and a not ‘insignificant’ job was apparently promised.

But, once victory was in the bag – in part helped by the peer’s millions – no job was forthcoming.

Eventually, Mr Cameron invited Lord Ashcroft to Chequers where he said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was blocking his appointment to a Coalition role.

Father: The book offers a deeply moving account of the PM’s love for his disabled son, and how caring for Ivan (pictured) turned him into a compassionate politician

Mr Clegg has since said he has no recollection of blocking any Tory appointments.

A short while later, after Mr Cameron’s conscience was ‘pricked’, Lord Ashcroft was offered the post of junior whip in the Foreign Office.

He writes: ‘After putting my neck on the line for nearly ten years – both as party treasurer under William Hague and as deputy chairman – and after ploughing some £8million into the party, I regarded this as a declinable offer. It would have been better had Cameron offered me nothing at all.’

He adds, tartly, that he was once told by a colleague of the Tory leader that: ‘Cameron’s word is as good as the paper it’s written on’ – which, he says, is a comment he’s had much cause to reflect on.

Lord Ashcroft also reveals how he had a conversation with Mr Cameron in 2009 about ‘how we could delay revealing my tax arrangements until after the election’.

After Lord Ashcroft was given a peerage by then Tory leader William Hague in 2001, the party was dogged with questions over whether he had fulfilled a commitment to become resident in the UK for tax purposes.

In March 2010, it was eventually revealed that he was a ‘non dom’ – sparking claims that, while he was keeping his assets offshore and out of the British tax system, he was ‘trying to buy a British election’.

'Non dom': After Lord Ashcroft (right) was given a peerage by William Hague (left), the party was dogged with questions over whether he had fulfilled a commitment to become resident in the UK for tax purposes

At the time, a spokesman for Mr Cameron said he had known of Lord Ashcroft’s tax status for only one month - a claim now flatly contradicted by the book, and likely to trigger a new row at Westminster.

Award-winning: The book is co-written by former Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott

Lord Ashcroft later became resident in the UK for tax purposes after it was made a requirement for sitting in the House of Lords.

Despite the criticism of Mr Cameron, the book praises him for the ‘remarkable achievement’ of increasing the number of Tory seats by 120 over the past two elections – more even than Margaret Thatcher.

Lord Ashcroft and his co-author employed a team of researchers and travelled the world to discover the full story behind Britain’s youngest PM for 200 years.

The book offers a deeply moving account of the PM’s love for his disabled son, and how caring for Ivan turned him into a compassionate politician.

Officials also praise Mr Cameron for his fearsome efficiency, having finished all of his prime ministerial red boxes by the time he holds his first daily meeting at 8.30am.

Lord Ashcroft is a major philanthropist – founding and funding Crimestoppers and giving large sums to military causes. He has also pledged to give half of his £1.2billion fortune to charity when he dies.

After the Labour landslide of 1997, when the party was in dire straits, he came to the rescue – pumping in cash to clear its £3million overdraft.

Miss Oakeshott is a highly-acclaimed political journalist who exposed how ex-Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne had illegally swapped speeding points with his then wife Vicky Pryce.

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