DAVID CAMERON, the young turk who covets the Tory leadership, is desperately trying to live down his privileged background.

So the Eton and Oxford- educated MP for Witney will be dismayed to learn that Downing Street has dubbed his campaign team “Toffs on tour”.

Cameron’s supporters include Boris Johnson, Eton (school fees £22,000); Hugo Swire, a scion of the dynasty that owns the Cathay Pacific airline, Eton; Oliver Letwin, Eton; Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, Eton; and George Osborne, the son of a baronet, St Paul’s (fees £16,000).

Cameron, 38, the leader of the Notting Hill set of affluent young Tory thinkers, describes himself as a resident of North Kensington, an area known for ethnic markets and drugs, to try to create some street cred.

He is in charge of Tory policy on education and looks to Rachel Whetstone, Michael Howard’s political secretary, for strategic advice. Whetstone is an old girl of Benenden School (fees £21,000). Viscount Astor, a close friend of Whetstone, is also onside.

The support of Whetstone and other supposedly impartial party officials has led to Conservative campaign HQ being nicknamed Cameron’s campaign HQ by Tory MPs.

Poetic pleasures

LORD SAATCHI may be in a sulk over Michael Howard’s election performance, but his wife Josephine Hart continues to flourish. Time Warner is to publish Catching Life by The Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why, by Hart, which is based on her experiences of hosting poetic salons at the British Library. The book centres around recitals by Charlotte Rampling, Sinead Cusack, Ralph Fiennes, Sir Roger Moore and Claire Bloom.

• Alex James, the bassist from Blur who wrote the signature tune for the doomed Beagle 2 space project, is teaming up again with the hirsute scientist Colin Pillinger. “We’re hoping to travel the world collecting samples of meteorites from famous landings and are in discussion with a guy who was hit in the arm by a meteor,” he said. And Beagle? “A British success story!”

  Family business

  PRODUCING an actor of their own — Sam West — has obviously convinced the husband and wife luvvies Prunella Scales and Timothy West that they have a few tips to pass on. The couple have been hard at work on a handbook for aspiring actors, which is called So You Want to be an Actor? It will be published during the Edinburgh Festival. Sam West, of course, is also a successful director.

  Ps

  How does Bill Nighy react to being called the thinking woman’s crumpet? “Someone said that to Christopher Walken,” he told Radio Times. “He said, ‘Is that some kind of bagel?’ That’s how I feel about it.”

• Ringo Starr has quashed hopes of a reunion between the surviving Beatles. “We’re never going to do it,” he told the US television show Access Hollywood. “We’re not going to tour together. I go with my band, Paul [McCartney] goes with his.”

  people@thetimes.co.uk

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Fern Britton: 'I still can't see that I was wrong'
• Extreme cooking
• Easy French: Tarte Tatin