Tory leaders wife in dock for promoting her firm

Tory leader David Camerons wife, Samantha, has been accused of using her husbands position to promote her company in a prestigious U.S. style magazine.

London, Aug.27 : Tory leader David Cameron's wife, Samantha, has been accused of using her husband's position to promote her company in a prestigious U.S. style magazine.

In a wide-ranging interview with Harper's Bazaar, Samantha Cameron repeatedly plugged Smythson, the upmarket London stationers where she is working as a creative director, reports the Daily Mail.

Critics have accused her of using her husband's position to boost sales for Smythson ahead of the opening of its Rodeo Drive store.

Inviting the magazine into her new Notting Hill home, the mother of three, discussed life with David, a Prime Minister hopeful.

In the space of four pages, she name-checked six products sold by Smythson, the 120-year-old company based in Bond Street. They included a 950-pound handbag, a 150-pound pink calfskin Bible and a limited edition diary. She even managed to plug her mother's furniture and homeware company. The profile was timed to coincide with the opening of Smythson's first store in Los Angeles.

The feature is headlined: "A fashionable life: The creative director of Smythson and wife of the UK's Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, shows off her London home."

In the main photo, Mrs Cameron, 36, stands on the doorstep of her two million pound Edwardian home, holding son Elwen, one, dressed in a Red Indian headdress, and clutching the hand of daughter Nancy, three, who is wearing a fairy costume. The couple's disabled elder son Ivan, five, is not pictured.

Critics yesterday drew comparisons between her and Cherie Blair, who was accused of using her husband Tony's name to promote speaking tours abroad.

Close friends of Samantha insist it is her job to promote Smythson and said she had gone out of her way to avoid encouraging claims she was abusing her position.

Last night a friend of the Camerons said: "To suggest she is using her husband's name to profit is complete nonsense."

"Her job is to be the face of Smythson, and it has been her job for the past 11 years. This interview was done purely for the U.S. market. There is no question of her trying to cash in on David's name and to compare her to Cherie Blair is laughable," she added.

Since Samantha joined Smythson in 1996, the company has cashed in on the soaring demand for luxury goods. A consortium of City investors, who intend to take the brand global, bought the firm in 2005.

ANI