Dead pig claims surface as Ashcroft has 'beef' with PM

Credit: John Giles/PA Wire

More often than not in politics it's your own side that will really do you in. And so David Cameron finds as extraordinary rumours are given an airing in the Daily Mail.

The source is the former Tory party treasurer Lord Ashcroft with whom the Prime Minister fell out with some years ago.

Most of the allegations are about drug taking by Mr Cameron at Oxford and by guests at the Camerons' home later. But there are also allegations about a bizarre initiation ceremony to a posh drinking club which are particularly salacious. They involve a dead pig.

Potentially more serious is a suggestion the Prime Minister may have known about Lord Ashcroft's own 'non dom' tax status before he admitted having heard about it.

Downing Street are holding the line, saying they will not dignify all this with a response and that the motivation for the stories is "explicit and obvious".

But it is also much more damaging than anything Jeremy Corbyn has managed to inflict on the Prime Minister so far. It's your own side you have to watch out for.