Cameron sure he had failed (From Oxford Mail)

Cameron sure he had failed

10:00am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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ON the eve of entering 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister, Witney MP David Cameron was convinced his bid to oust Gordon Brown had failed and the Conservatives would remain in opposition, it was revealed last night.

Mr Cameron was caught by surprise by Mr Brown’s announcement that he would step down, and had to make an urgent phone call to his wife Samantha and tell her to “get your frock on” as they were going to Buckingham Palace to meet The Queen.

And he revealed that when The Queen asked him to form a Government, he was unable to say what kind of administration he could form.

The revelations came in a BBC2 documentary about the dramatic five days following the inconclusive result of the General Election on May 6 and the frenzied negotiations over a new Government.

After four days in which Mr Cameron’s overtures appeared to be paving the way for coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Westminster was shocked on Monday, May 10, by Mr Brown’s announcement that the Lib Dems had asked for talks with Labour.

Mr Cameron said in the programme, called Five Days that Changed Britain, that at this point he believed he would not become Prime Minister.

He said: “I remember saying ‘It’s not going to happen, I’m going to be leader of the Opposition’.

“And I remember saying ‘I want to go on being leader of the Opposition. I think we can defeat this new government. I’m depressed that it hasn’t worked out as we wanted it, but we’ve got a strong party, had a strong election, we did very well, we made the right offer to the Lib Dems... we behaved in the right way, we made them a big generous offer to have a coalition government. They’re going with the other lot, we’re going to fight them all the way’.

“And I thought: ‘That’s it, I’m going to be in opposition for another couple more years’.

“On Sunday I was thinking I probably will be Prime Minister... I was thinking by the end of Monday I definitely won’t be Prime Minister.”

Mr Cameron recalled his surprise when Mr Brown announced at 7.20pm on Tuesday, May 11, that he was going to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to The Queen.

“I remember having to ring Samantha and saying ‘What are you doing’,” he said. “And she was doing Nancy’s homework and I said ‘We could be going to the Palace, you’d better get your frock on’.”

Within an hour, the Camerons were at Buckingham Palace for an audience with The Queen.

Mr Cameron recalled: “I went to see Her Majesty and she asked me to form a government and I said I couldn’t be totally sure about what sort of government I was going to form.

“I said that I hoped to form a coalition government but I might have to come back in the morning and tell her it was something rather different.”