Downing Street adviser reveals why David Cameron was humming after resignation speech

David Cameron - Image credit: PA Images

A former special adviser to David Cameron has revealed the real reason David Cameron was humming to himself as he walked back to Number 10 after resigning as prime minister.

Former adviser Ramsay Jones claims the ditty was prompted by sudden nervousness about the front door not opening.

Speaking today at the Scottish Parliament’s Festival of Politics on the role of the special adviser, Jones was asked what Cameron was singing as he walked away.

Jones answered: “He sang, da dah dum. And he sang it because when you walk towards Number 10 and you’re expected, the door magically opens for you as you approach the door.

“So, he’d done the piece to camera and he was walking back in and he suddenly feared the door wasn’t going to open. Like, ‘you’re history now, sir’.

“And it was just a sort of slightly nervous refrain to himself. And the door magically opened.”

Jones described the mood inside Downing Street on the morning after the Brexit vote.

“A few of us in Downing Street knew what was going to happen. And the question hadn’t really started to be asked the next morning [about Cameron resigning],” he said.

“Everyone was still poring over the result and the seismic impact and what will happen next, what will Brexit mean and everything else.

“And it was the moment that David walked out of that Number 10 door and Sam was beside him, the penny suddenly collectively dropped – to the media outside as well.

“And that was the moment we realised this was not just reaction to the Brexit vote, it was something far more personal that was about to happen.”

Cameron’s resignation immediately after the EU referendum echoes that of Alex Salmond two years earlier after the independence vote.

Former top special adviser to ex-SNP leader Alex Salmond Kevin Pringle highlighted the importance of the timing of resignations.

Pringle revealed he did not advise Salmond to stay on as first minister the morning after the independence referendum because he had clearly decided that resigning was the best thing to do.

“That was coming anyway. So if it was coming anyway, if the question at some point after the referendum in the early hours, the day after, the weekend after the referendum, the week after that, were going to be voices saying in the media and elsewhere, ‘So, Alex Salmond, your position’s really untenable as first minster, isn’t it?’

“Well, at some point Alec was going to step down from office, so much better to do it before anyone had started to ask that question. Again, it goes back to the fact you’ve managed to put yourself in command of events.”

Pringle said the immediate decision meant that the news story was more likely to be written in a way the SNP would wish it to be rather than it becoming ‘when’s Alex Salmond going to resign?’

“It at least created the possibility that another sort of narrative would take over.”

In fact, another more positive story did take over, which was the sudden rise in SNP membership in the wake of the No vote, although at the time the party didn’t know that was going to happen.

“But Alec departing from the scene created the space for a different kind of story,” said Pringle.

Jones and Pringle were taking part in a panel discussion about the role of the special adviser – made famous by Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It – as part of the Scottish Parliament’s annual Festival of Politics.