Pushing back at Brussels

The most striking thing about David Cameron is how well rested he looks. You wouldn’t guess that he was the father of a ten-month-old baby, let alone Prime Minister. He has no bags under his eyes — unlike his staff. He also seems relaxed. He jovially beckons us in to his Downing Street office and then flops down into one of the two high-backed chairs and urges one of us to take the other: ‘the Chancellor’s chair’, he calls it, with a chuckle.

The last time we interviewed him, during the general election campaign, he was a different man, tired and tetchy. High office evidently suits him better than scrambling for votes. He seems to relish the variety of items on his agenda. Yesterday, he says, he spent the afternoon in a seminar with scientists and businessmen on genomics and its possible commercial applications. His next appointment is with Martina Navratilova.

But these are not easy times for the Prime Minister. The economic recovery remains fragile and events in Europe could push the country back into recession. This morning, Cameron had a breakfast meeting with the governor of the Bank of England, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Business Secretary to discuss what is happening in the eurozone. The financial crisis could turn out to be the defining issue of Cameron’s premiership, a possibility that the Prime Minister is now beginning to acknowledge.

Cameron starts with the premise that the eurozone countries will do what it takes to keep the single currency alive. ‘No one in Britain, however sceptical they are about the euro — and they don’t come much more sceptical than me — should have any doubt about the immense commitment there will be from other European countries to make the euro work,’ he says. ‘We would be kidding ourselves if we thought somehow they’re sitting around thinking, gosh it’s not going very well, how are we going to get out of this one? That’s not what they’re doing.