The four young women who make up the string quartet Bond hoisted their electrical instruments and threw themselves into a rendition of one of their hits. Looking on from their dinner tables in the ballroom of the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane on this mid-March evening were 500 of the most powerful figures in British politics, media and finance. They had come to celebrate the 70th birthday of billionaire philanthropist and former Conservative Party donor Lord Michael Ashcroft, a former deputy chairman of Britain’s ruling party. There was no sign, however, of the most powerful person in the party— British Prime Minister David Cameron. He and the host had fallen out. Also absent from the extravagant bash were most of the senior officials from the party Ashcroft had for many years bankrolled.
In the runup to the event, Cameron had let it be known that he would consider it an act of disloyalty for government ministers to attend the festivities. Many stayed away. But there, seated at the top table, was another powerful Conservative, Boris Johnson. If the then-mayor of London had received the message from his party leader, he had decided to ignore it.