ED Vaizey was far away from the ministerial trappings of wood-panelled rooms and chauffeur-driven cars when he received the news he had been sacked.

The Wantage MP had to pull his car over near Henley on July 15 when Theresa May, who had become Prime Minister two days earlier, unceremoniously called to say he would no longer be Culture Minister.

He broke the news via Twitter, true to form, simply writing: “Looking forward to supporting the government from the backbenches #vexit”.

He was just one casualty in what was seen as a “ruthless” bloodletting of David Cameron’s allies from the Government last month.

For Mr Vaizey, 48, was among a select group of young Conservatives – known as the ‘Notting Hill set’ – who had met at the party’s research department and rose together through the ranks to some of its most prominent positions.

Alongside Mr Cameron, this included former Chancellor George Osborne, former Justice Secretary Michael Gove, former Skills Minister Nick Boles, former Downing Street chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and Baroness Fall, former deputy chief of staff at Downing Street.

All left government when Mrs May took the reins of power. Now Mr Vaizey, like his friends, has returned to the back benches.

“It is definitely a changing of the guard,” he says, sitting in a House of Commons tea room.

“You don’t realise how lucky you were, because I had a job that I loved but also, although I wasn’t in the Cabinet, I have known David Cameron a long time and I knew the people around him in No 10.

"If I wanted to push any particular area, I could pick up the phone and get an answer.

“Now, even though Theresa May is in the same political party, I don’t know her, I don’t know the people around her and, although it is partly my own fault, I don’t know a lot of the 2010 intake who are now ministers.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Mr Vaizey arrives to vote at his local polling station in Wantage in May 2015's General Election. 

But he does not intend to take his new role lying down.

In fact, the father-of-two says he will now be able to stand up for Wantage more vocally.

“I will carry on with culture and technology, because that is where my expertise is. But part of the joy of representing Wantage is you have also got some of the greatest scientific research establishments and scientists in the country, so that will be the third string to my bow.”

He is concerned about the impact the UK’s impending exit from the European Union could have on science, particularly at sites such as the Harwell campus.

“At the moment, the key thing is reassurance,” he says.

“We should be clear that we will be involved in projects up until 2020, but the EU also has to realise that we have great teams in the UK that should remain part of these consortiums because, ultimately, it is about good science.”

Oxford Mail:

  • The Harwell science campus, which Ed Vaizey wants to champion.

One of the most remarkable things about Mr Vaizey’s time in the Government was his longevity.

He kept his post throughout Mr Cameron’s time in power and is the longest serving arts minister in history.

So does he have any regrets? Inevitably, he says.

He is still frustrated about his failure to win the argument publicly about budget cuts that saw councils decide to close libraries, even though he believes the model now used in Oxfordshire – mainly volunteer-led – is the right one.

“I got it wrong politically, because I’m seen as a man who didn’t support libraries.

“But Oxfordshire is a good example where, by using volunteers, which enrages some library campaigners, you actually deliver a better service because suddenly you have got people who feel they have a stake in their local library.

Oxford Mail:

  • Protesters in Botley demonstrate against library closures in 2011.

“I also wish I’d been in the Cabinet, because when I was fighting for arts funding I never had the chance to go directly to the Chancellor and make the case for the arts.”

Now he will be less busy, he says he is looking forward to seeing more of his wife, Alice, and two children – Martha, eight, and Joseph, nine.

“Leaving government is a very big chance to reboot the worklife balance.

“My kids are great and they do quite like what I do,” he pauses. “But you can imagine what kids are like. My daughter said ‘what are you going to do now you’re not important anymore?’

“But I don’t think of myself as a career politician, I really enjoy the constituency work.

"Making a difference to people’s lives is amazingly fulfilling.”

VAIZEY ON...BREXIT, CAMERON AND GOVE

Oxford Mail:

SPEAKING about Witney MP and former prime minister David Cameron’s legacy, friend and former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey thinks it will inevitably be defined by Brexit.

Along with George Osborne and Michael Gove, the pair were part of the ‘Notting Hill set’ of up and coming members of the Conservatives.

Mr Vaizey said: “His legacy will be Brexit,you can’t get away from that. But if Brexit does turn out to be the opportunity for the UK to forge a new and exciting path in the world, maybe he will be thanked in the future for unwittingly doing that.

“But if it hadn’t had been for Brexit, then his legacy would have been very strongly on the transformation of the economy. What he and George did was phenomenal.

“And again, people forget – and I am sure Philip Hammond and Theresa May will work incredibly well together – the benefit in government of having those two at the top, who were effectively very close friends.

"It made the Government 10 times more effective than it would have otherwise been.”

Has he spoken to his friends? “No, I haven’t spoken to George. I have texted David, we exchanged a few wry texts.

Oxford Mail:

  • Former Justice Secretary Michael Gove leaves Downing Street.

“I was really impressed to see him on the backbenches during the [Trident] debate. I think people forget David Cameron genuinely has a public service commitment.”

On the now-infamous falling out between Mr Cameron and Mr Gove, he is also optimistic they will patch things up. Mr Vaizey was one of those asked by Mr Cameron to try to persuade Mr Gove to back Remain in the EU campaign.

“He wasn’t having any of it. You know when someone has just made a decision and it wasn’t, in Michael’s case, a Machiavellian calculated decision about what was good for his career.

“I know people think he is a sort of terrible ogre at the moment, but he is a man of principle.

“But there is no doubt it has damaged that relationship, the Camerons and the Goves. But David is a very human person and I think he is not one to cry over spilled milk or bear grudges.

“They have a deep friendship based on 10 years of working closely together, so I am sure they will come back together again."

VAIZEY ON... BEING ‘MINISTER OF FUN’

Oxford Mail:

AS MINISTER for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey met plenty of actors and celebrities between 2010 and 2016.

He even ended up getting a credit, along with George Osborne, in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, for his assistance in bringing the filming to the UK.

He said: “The film industry is very glamorous and meeting Tom Cruise I always put down as a highlight. He was spectacularly charming. It is funny when you meet someone as globally famous as him, it is just a very entertaining and interesting experience.

“Meeting Mark Rylance, now much more famous then he was then, on stage after being in Twelfth Night was also great.

"I have been lucky to meet so many wonderful actors and fashion designers, and also the people behind the scenes like the people who run the British effects industry.

“I really do hold to that view that these industries are really important to the UK economy.”

But unlike other ministers who see going down to a factory and donning a hard hat as the best way to interact with industry, he also made appearances at fashion shows.

“London Fashion Week, the Burberry Fashion Show, is a spectacular event that is a statement of our confidence in fashion. “That is always an extraordinarily entertaining event to go to. The key thing is that the arts want a lot of facetime.

“They don’t like having a minister who doesn’t go to the theatre, who doesn’t enjoy the opera. Because that is what they want you to see.

“Although it looks like the Minister of Fun, it is enjoyable but at the same time – without wishing to sound too bizarre – for me it is the equivalent of a visit to a factory.”