David Cameron slams Guardian and says ‘death knows no privilege’ as he recalls holding dying son Ivan in his arms

DAVID Cameron has slammed the Guardian saying "death knows no privilege" as he recalled holding his dying son Ivan in his arms.

The former PM was responding publicly for the first time to an editorial that discussed his "privileged pain" after his son died at the age of six.

In it, the author suggested he "might have understood the damage his policies have done" if he had sought care for "a dying parent rather than a dying child".

It continued: "Mr Cameron has known pain and failure in his life but it has always been limited failure and privileged pain.

"His experience of the NHS, which looked after his severely disabled son, has been been that of the better functioning and better funded parts of the system."

'DEATH KNOWS NO PRIVILEGE'

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said: “There is no privilege in holding your eldest born child in your arms as their life drains away.

"Death knows no privilege.. from the little I saw of it [the editorial] I couldn't understand what it was trying to say."

The father of four, 52, has spoken about his devastation at losing Ivan in his memoirs For The Record, published today and serialised in The Times.

Ivan died in 2009 after being diagnosed with the extremely rare Ohtahara syndrome, for which there was no treatment or cure, or known cause.

The Guardian piece was met with widespread outrage and the paper was forced into making a grovelling apology before taking down the article from its website.

There is no privilege in holding your eldest born child in your arms as their life drains away

David Cameron

During the wide-ranging interview, Mr Cameron told LBC he “wants to try” to rekindle his destroyed friendship with former Leave campaign boss Michael Gove.

But he fears Mr Gove has “become quite a different person in all of it”.

In his memoirs Mr Cameron blasted his former friend, now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson for behaving "appallingly" in the EU referendum campaign.

Mr Cameron has refused to apologise for his role in calling the EU Referendum, but expressed regret at the outcome.

During the interview he also said he woke up daily wondering what recently resigned Speaker John Bercow would do “to make my life hell today”.

Mr Cameron recalled: “I almost, sort of, got out of bed every morning and thought, whatever John Bercow can do to make my life hell today, he will do.

“You know, things were done sometimes, you scratch your head and thought, hold on, where the hell did that one come from?”

Alongside his book revelations, Cameron is also subject of a two-part documentary, airing tonight at 9pm on BBC1.

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