David Cameron reportedly sighed that politics would be easier if his colleagues ‘didn’t snort coke and sodomise each other’, according to a new book by the former chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Sir Graham Brady, who stepped down as an MP and as chair of the highly influential Conservative backbench committee earlier this year, claimed the now-Lord Cameron made the comment following a series of scandals that plagued the party in 2014.
The former Altrincham and Sale West MP, who was elevated to the Lords after stepping down, has written a tell-all book of his 14-year chairing of the group, which oversaw the downfall of five prime ministers during his tenure.
An extract of the book, serialised in a national newspaper, claims the then-PM was so frustrated with his own party’s members following a series of controversies that he privately vented to Lord Brady about the troublesome Tories in question.
Kingmaker, as the book is called, sees Lord Brady expose the inner workings of the Tory party over the most turbulent period in its history – from the Brexit referendum to lockdown and everything in between.
The frank exchange between the two Lords is thought to have taken place in April 2014, following a series of scandals to hit the party.
Brady described Cameron as saying: ‘The fact is, a lot of politics is just s***: it’s choosing the least bad option… Life would be easier if colleagues paid their expenses on time and didn’t snort coke and sodomise each other.’
It is unclear who, if anyone in particular, Cameron was referring to when he made the remarks.
But it came at around the same time that culture secretary Maria Miller resigned after she was ordered to repay £5,800 of taxpayer cash she had over-claimed for mortgage expenses.
Cameron himself has said when asked if he had ever used drugs as a student: ‘I had a normal university experience.
‘There were things that I did then that I don’t think that I should talk about now I’m a politician.’
Lord Brady told the Telegraph, which serialised an extract of the book today, that Cameron would lose his temper when confronted with rebellions within his party.
After one rebel vote, Cameron reportedly fumed to Brady: ‘I might as well be frank, Graham. I was just appalled at what you did last week… I mean you’re chairman of the f****** 1922 Committee, and you’ve voted against the government 11 times! Don’t you feel any loyalty to the government?’
Brady went on to suggest Cameron entered into a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats because he was ‘keen to hold onto power for as long as possible’ – and called his decision to quit as PM after the Brexit vote was ‘an act of petulance’.
But he did have kinder words for the former PM who ‘always exuded bonhomie’ and was ‘intensely relaxed’ – despite admitting this style of running government was not to his own liking.
Lord Brady’s book also covers his time chairing the 1922 Committee during the May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak governments.
It is billed: ‘As Prime Ministers have come and gone, one man has been at the heart of every leadership challenge, seeing all, but saying nothing. Until now.’
Sir Graham says he came up with the title as he brought his family to the Commons Terrace to watch the fireworks at the end of 2022 – and was greeted by a security guard who called: ‘Ah, the Kingmaker!’
He was elected as the youngest of a new pack of Conservatives in 1997 at the age of 30, winning the Greater Manchester constituency with a relative majority of 43.2 per cent after reading law at Durham University.
Ithaka Press, which is publishing Lord Brady’s book, says it secured worldwide publishing rights for a ‘six-figure’ sum.
The Conservatives were contacted for comment.