Cameron gets ready for No. 10 — and Boris must wait his turn

David Cameron talks to Fraser Nelson about his local election triumphs, admits that he is not going to ‘agree on everything’ with the new Mayor of London, and says Boris should join the queue to become PM after him

The victorious David Cameron is being driven towards Buckingham Palace, the adrenaline of election success still pumping through his veins. Crowds line The Mall, peering into the blackened glass of his limousine. But when he approaches the Palace, his car turns for the A4 and the reverie is shattered. He’s on his way to Crewe for the by-election, setting off by car because of train cancellations. The crowds were for someone else. His lunch is a cheese sandwich from an M1 service station. He is on the campaign trail, yet again.

‘There is a slight sense of Groundhog Day,’ says Mr Cameron, sipping his take-away coffee. I am joining him for the day, and watch as he slips back into his mobile office routine. His two staff sit beside me in the back seat, passing briefing notes and arranging his day. He has two mobile telephones, one for speaking and one for reading emails. One phone has the ring tone taken from 24 — the hit television show about a counter-terrorist agent who regularly escapes mortal peril. ‘It’s an in-joke,’ the Tory leader says.

One can guess at the joke’s content. In the last year, Mr Cameron has seen his party bungee jump into the abyss. ‘The Spectator had that cover of me with my hands bound and my neck in a noose,’ he reminds me. This was indeed the cover image of our Tory conference issue — beside the headline ‘Now get out of this, Dave’. He did — and how. In last week’s local elections, Labour’s vote collapsed to its lowest since the first world war, Boris captured London and Mr Cameron earned the right to be taken seriously as our next prime minister.