Chillaxed? No, I'm like a caged animal, says Cameron in highly personal insight into his working life

He has sometimes been accused of being lazy and too fond of ‘chillaxing’. But David Cameron insists the job of Prime Minister makes him feel like a caged animal.

While he works hard, he tries to juggle his duties with family life and does have time for some private guilty pleasures – including online music service Spotify, he has revealed.

In a highly personal insight into his working life, Mr Cameron sought to dispel the view held by some MPs and officials that he spends too much time chilling out and relaxing.

‘I’ve never worked so hard in my life,’ he said. ‘I feel the responsibility more than I ever have done, I feel more passionate and I have more worries than I’ve ever had in my life, but I don’t think I am a changed person.’

Mr Cameron revealed that he has to juggle calls to international statesmen with spending time with his children and admits the pace of the job can be daunting.

He said: ‘The phone is always ringing, there are always calls to make. I’m frequently in the car on the phone to the Israeli prime minister, telling the kids in the back to shut up.


'There’s a lot of that, this job is exceptionally demanding and you have to make yourself available at the drop of a hat.’

Mr Cameron was once heavily criticised for admitting that he spends his time playing the game Fruit Ninja on his iPad to relax.


And in the interview with the Sunday Times magazine he confessed that his ‘guilty pleasure’ is listening to Spotify, the internet music site that allows members to search its database of more than 20million songs.


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Registered users can play tunes for free but must pay £9.99 a month to avoid having to listen to adverts.

The Prime Minister has previously expressed his admiration for bands as diverse as The Smiths, The Killers, Lana Del Ray, Band Of Horses and Florence And The Machine. He has confessed that pop singers Bruno Mars and Katy Perry, liked by his children, have begun to ‘infect’ his iPod.



Out of the cage: The Prime Minister received a lot of criticism when he admitted he uses games on his iPad to relax from his hectic life constantly on duty

Asked how else he relaxes, Mr Cameron said: ‘I like to get out, go for a run, you do feel a bit like a caged animal sometimes. Running round the park clears the head.

‘I’m a great believer in fresh air and exercise, I love going for long walks at the weekend. Fresh air, cycling with the kids. I’m a very outdoors person. That said, our walks with the kids often end up in a pub.’

Previous prime ministers have been known for enjoying a nightly nightcap.

CAMERON: I AM NO THATCHERITE



David Cameron insisted he is not a Thatcherite and is ‘uncomfortable’ with some of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy – despite telling voters: ‘We’re all Thatcherites now.’


He said he was more ‘socially liberal’ and had sought to reverse her approach to society.


Mr Cameron told the Sunday Times magazine he ‘was a big Thatcher supporter’.


But when asked if he is a Thatcherite, Mr Cameron said: ‘No. Other people might call me that. I think labels don’t quite mean what they did then.’


The interview, given on the day of Lady Thatcher’s death but not published until yesterday, contradicts comments he made on the morning of her funeral on April 17.


Then he said: ‘I think in a way we’re all Thatcherites now. ’


Mr Cameron said the economic challenges he is trying to tackle are tougher than those faced by Mrs Thatcher during the 1980s.

Asked if he is the same, Mr Cameron said: ‘No, I don’t do that.


'I like a glass of wine, but not every night, it’s important not to do that, though I like a glass of wine with dinner and a pint in the pub.’

Asked when he was last drunk, he said: ‘Not for a long time. Not even at Christmas.’

The Prime Minister admitted that the pace of the job means that wife Samantha and their three children sometimes have to take a back seat.

He said: ‘The deal is not quite what it used to be, though I did cook last night.

‘We do try to make sure we have time for each other, but nothing is sacrosanct, anything can suddenly come up and it takes priority.’

n A Tory MP has lambasted one of Mr Cameron’s new political advisers for saying Old Etonians dominate the heart of government because other schools do not have the same ‘commitment to public service’.

Jesse Norman said ministers wanted state schools to emulate Eton’s ‘ethos’.

But Sarah Wollaston, Conservative MP for Totnes, posted a link to the story on Twitter, adding: ‘Words fail me.’


She then tweeted: ‘I’m not asked for policy advice, but just in case: there are other schools and some of them even admit women.’