An unofficial biography of David Cameron written by the former Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft has made a series of claims about his involvement in a drug-taking environment at university, a bizarre dinner club initiation ritual and his knowledge of the peer’s offshore tax status.
The publication of extracts in the Daily Mail, two weeks before the Tories’ autumn conference, is a sign of how far Ashcroft has fallen out with the prime minister, who is said not to have followed through on a promise to give him a significant job after the 2010 general election.
Ashcroft wrote that he had a personal “beef” with Cameron because he did not give him a role in the coalition, claiming Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister, had blocked it. Cameron later reconsidered and offered Ashcroft a job as a junior whip in the Foreign Office.
Ashcroft wrote: “After putting my neck on the line for nearly 10 years – both as party treasurer under William Hague and as deputy chairman – and after ploughing some £8m into the party, I regarded this as a declinable offer. It would have been better had Cameron offered me nothing at all.”
The book, co-written by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, also alleges that Cameron knew in 2009 that Ashcroft had non-dom status, meaning the donor legally did not pay UK tax on overseas earnings.
When a row about this blew up in March 2010, just before the election, the prime minister claimed only to have been aware about it for less than month.
The biography also makes claims about the prime minister’s time at university, saying an MP had seen photographic evidence that Cameron put a “private part of his anatomy” into a dead pig’s head as part of a dining club initiation ritual.
The MP told the authors Cameron attended a dining club called Piers Gaveston, known for its debauchery and named after the lover of Edward II, as well as being part of the Bullingdon drinking club, which was notorious for trashing rooms.
Speaking to the biographers, one Tory MP said he had been asked to join the Bullingdon Club but walked out of the first event in disgust and considered it was all about “despising poor people”.
The book does not provide any evidence of Cameron ever having been involved in any destruction at the Bullingdon Club, and the individual who is said to have a photograph of the incident with the pig has not provided any corroboration.
A friend from university also said Cameron smoked cannabis with him occasionally while listening to Supertramp as part of a group called the Flam Club.
James Delingpole, now a rightwing journalist, told the authors his room at Christ Church college, Oxford University, was where he took the drug with Cameron and another friend. “My drug of choice was weed, and I smoked weed with Dave,” he reportedly said.
On Sunday, he tweeted:
Downing Street declined to comment on the book but a Conservative source said No 10 did not recognise any of the allegations made on the front page of the Daily Mail.
Ashcroft gave millions to the Conservatives before the 2010 election. Relations deteriorated after he was not offered a big job while the Conservatives were infuriated when Ashcroft published his detailed constituency polling in the run-up to 2015, arguing it helped other parties. The billionaire peer has now resigned from the House of Lords.
George Osborne, the chancellor, on Monday dodged a question about whether Ashcroft’s claims had damaged the prime minister.
“Well, I haven’t seen that book,” Osborne said, grinning, during a press conference at the Communist party’s Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, China.