So Dave, what is it about the plight of the ex-Maldives leader that's so absorbing? (Surely it's nothing to do with his beautiful, famous barrister Amal Clooney!) 

He must be the busiest man in Britain – so how did David Cameron manage to free up an hour in his packed diary for a date yesterday with a junior barrister?

Could it perhaps have had anything to do with the fact the lawyer who visited him at No 10 was Amal Clooney, highly glamorous wife of Hollywood star George?

Impeccably dressed in an elegantly tailored black coat over a tweed jacket and skirt, she smiled in her high heels for photographers as she arrived at Downing Street.

Amal Clooney, right, met with Prime Minister David Cameron, centre, to raise the issue of the former president of the Maldives Mohammed Nasheed, left, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2012 and imprisoned for 13 years on terrorism charges after a dubious trial 

British lawyer Amal Clooney leaves after a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed at 10 Downing Street

Mr Cameron listened intently for about an hour as the human rights lawyer urged him to help her free the jailed former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

And there was another angle to the meeting that may have piqued the Prime Minister’s interest – the case has become a fight between Mrs Clooney and Cherie Blair, the barrister wife of Tony Blair, who has been hired to represent the Maldivian government.

British lawyer Mrs Clooney, who was catapulted to global celebrity by her marriage in Venice to the film star in 2014, was able to take Mr Nasheed to Downing Street with her after he was granted temporary leave from prison in the Maldives to have surgery.

Also at the meeting was Mr Nasheed’s wife, Laila Ali Abdulla.

Mr Nasheed, 48, was the first democratically-elected president of the Maldives, but he was deposed in a coup in 2012 and was sentenced to 13 years in jail last March after he was convicted under anti-terrorism laws of ordering the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge.

Mrs Clooney, right, has lobbied Mr Cameron, centre, previously on Mr Nasheed's behalf following his controversial conviction back home

Mr Nasheed, pictured, was granted temporary release from prison so he could fly to London to undergo spinal surgery 

Mrs Clooney met with Mr Cameron in June in the House of Commons to raise Mr Nasheed's plight with the British government

Mrs Clooney met with Mr Cameron in June along with Mr Nasheed's wife Laila Ali to raise the former president's plight

The UN ruled in October that his incarceration was unjust, and there is growing international pressure for him to be permanently released and pardoned by the country’s hardline dictator Abdulla Yameen.

But representatives of Mrs Blair’s legal team for the Maldivian government argue the former president was fairly convicted of an offence of the ‘utmost seriousness’ by the courts and say calls for sanctions are ‘inappropriate’.

It’s not the first encounter between Mrs Clooney, 37, and Mr Cameron. They met at the House of Commons in June last year to discuss the same case. She says the Prime Minister is ‘very supportive’ of her efforts to free Mr Nasheed.

Mr Nasheed, pictured beside his wife Laila Ali Abdulla, right, will undergo spinal surgery before he returns the the Maldives next month 

Mrs Clooney, pictured, accompanied her client Mr Nasheed to the unusual Saturday morning meeting in Downing Street with Mr Cameron

The British government has already raised Mr Nasheed's plight with the Maldives following Mrs Clooney's earlier intervention 

A Downing Street spokesman said yesterday that Mr Cameron occasionally holds meetings at No 10 on a Saturday ‘depending on his schedule’.

He added: ‘The Prime Minister told Mr Nasheed that the UK would continue to raise concerns about the erosion of democracy and wider situation in the Maldives.’

Within minutes of the end of the meeting, Mr Cameron swapped his suit for casual gear and headed off for another important appointment – to join wife Samantha for a weekend at Chequers. 

As soon as the meeting with Mrs Clooney was over Mr Cameron, right,  ditched his suit and himself and Mrs Cameron, left, went to 'chillax'

Mr Nasheed was warmly greeted by his lawyer Mrs Clooney after he touched down in Heathrow Airport on Thursday afternoon, pictured