Squealer Ashcroft wanted to become Defence Secretary: Why billionaire donor took such vicious revenge on PM in hatchet biography
- Ashcroft fell out with David Cameron after the PM rejected his demand to be made Defence Secretary
- The peer was enraged when offered the lowly post of a Foreign Office whip
- He revenge came last week in the form of the biography 'Call Me Dave'
- It portrays Cameron as an out-of-touch, arrogant snob with a drug habit
Enraged: Tory billionaire Michael Ashcroft fell out with David Cameron after the Prime Minister rejected his demand to be made Defence Secretary
Michael Ashcroft fell out with David Cameron after the Prime Minister rejected his demand to be made Defence Secretary, it was revealed last night.
The Tory billionaire told Cameron that he wanted a seat at the Cabinet table in return for giving the party £8 million worth of support.
The peer wanted the Cabinet job – with his first choice as Defence Secretary in charge of Britain’s Armed Forces. Failing that, he wanted to be Conservative chairman – running its finances and Election campaign.
Instead, when Cameron became Prime Minister and offered him the lowly post of a Foreign Office whip, the peer was enraged.
His revenge came last week in the form of shocking allegations about Cameron in a book – Call Me Dave – by Ashcroft and journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
It portrays Cameron as an out-of-touch, arrogant snob and links him and wife Samantha to drug-taking claims.
Most controversially it claims Cameron inserted part of his anatomy into the mouth of a dead pig in a drunken students’ ritual.
Ashcroft has candidly admitted he had a ‘beef’ with Cameron after failing to be offered a ‘significant’ Government job in 2010.
In the event Cameron offered him the Foreign Office backroom role.
Ashcroft said: ‘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 £8 million into the party, I regarded this as a declinable offer.
‘It would have been better had Cameron offered me nothing at all.’
He denied his book was about ‘settling scores’.
Ashcroft did not say which job he expected to get.
But this newspaper has established he told Cameron he wanted to be Defence Secretary, and if that was not available he would settle for Party chairman.
A well-placed source said: ‘It was totally unrealistic for Michael to think he could be given such a senior role when he wasn’t even an elected MP, let alone with all the other controversy that swirls around him.’
But Ashcroft’s allies say he would have made a ‘brilliant’ Defence Secretary.
He has a lifelong interest in the military: he has the largest collection of Victoria Crosses in the world; is a major supporter of the Help For Heroes charity; gave £1 million to the Bomber Command Memorial at London’s Green Park; and £5 million to the Imperial War Museum.
A friend of the peer said: ‘Michael knows and cares more about defence than anyone in Parliament and has put his money where his mouth is.
‘Vladimir Putin would think twice about thumbing his nose at Britain if Michael was in charge of the defence of the realm.’
Rejection: When Cameron became Prime Minister he instead offered him the lowly post of a Foreign Office whip, which Ashcroft described as a 'declinable offer'
Revenge: Ashcroft has denied that his new book 'Call Me Dave' - which portrays the Prime Minister as an out-of-touch arrogant snob with a drug habit - is about 'settling scores'
However, other senior Tories backed ReCameron’s decision to slam the Cabinet door in Ashcroft’s face.
One claimed former Party leader Michael Howard regarded Ashcroft as a ‘total menace’ – and warned Cameron to keep him at arms’ length when Cameron succeeded Howard in 2005.
Another said Tory chairman Lord Feldman – Cameron’s tennis partner in his student days – was also ‘wary’ of Ashcroft. ‘Ashcroft is wrong to claim he gave the Tories £8 million,’ said the insider.
‘Much of it was in the form of loans and Feldman made sure it was paid back as soon as possible so Ashcroft had no leverage over us.’
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