David Cameron had hoped to have drawn a line under his mildly embarrassing friendship with Rebekah Brooks. But the prime minister has now found himself caught up in what is inevitably becoming known as Horsegate.
Downing Street sources indicated that Cameron may have ridden on Brooks's former police horse, Raisa, before he became prime minister.
Cameron admitted that he went riding with his Etonian contemporary Charlie Brooks, the husband of the former News International chief executive, before the election in 2010. Brooks is a racehorse trainer whose stables are a central part of the "Chipping Norton set".
Cameron told 5 News: "It's a matter of record that I have been riding with Rebekah Brooks' husband, Charlie Brooks. He is a friend of mine for 30 years standing and a neighbour in my constituency so that's a matter of record, but since I have been prime minister I think I have been a on a horse once and it wasn't that one."
As ever with any episode which merits a "gate" suffix, the questions did not stop there. No 10 sources indicated that there was a strong possibility that Cameron had ridden on the retired Metropolitan police horse. The Brooks stables are said not to be vast and so there was a good chance that Cameron may have ridden Raisa.
One No 10 source said the prime minister's involvement in Horsegate was an illustration of the admission by Cameron earlier this year – that politicians became too close to the media. "We know that they were all too close," one source said. "We have all accepted that politicians and the media were too close."
The source said that the prime minister never went as far as Sarah Brown who hosted a pyjama party for Rebekah Brooks in Downing Street. "The prime minister does not wear pyjamas on the back of a horse," the source said.
The prime minister's spokesman said that details of Cameron's meetings would be published, though he said he did not believe his horseriding with Brooks would be included. "It was not a meeting," the spokesman said. "The prime minister does not have meetings on horses."
