David Cameron and Andy Coulson mingle at music festival:
Rebekah Brooks also attends Oxfordshire event at which PM and his former spin chief are reported to have exchanged words
They haven't been seen together since he was forced to quit as No 10 director of communications in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal almost 18 months ago.
But now David Cameron and Andy Coulson have landed themselves in another minor controversy after they both unexpectedly showed up at an Oxfordshire music festival, said to be of the highlights of the Chipping Norton social calendar, also attended by former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.
Photographers say they saw them briefly exchange words. Downing Street says categorically they did not. A spokesman for No 10 said: "They did not speak or meet – it's categorical."
A photographer, working for an unidentified news agency, says he witnessed them exchanging words outside a hospitality tent. But the two men were not snapped together in conversation.
Pictures of the two men at the festival were separately captured by a photographer from a second news agency, INS. "From what my photographer told me, they did chat, only very briefly," said Neil Hyde, news editor of the INS agency whose photographer was at the festival.
The Cornbury Music Festival is held at Great Tew, West Oxfordshire, near David Cameron's consituency home. Coulson's presence at an event close to Chipping Norton is more surprising than Cameron's, given that the former spin chief's family home is miles away in Forest Hill, near Dulwich, south London.
However, local reporters believe that Coulson has recently moved to the area from south London, which would make him a fully fledged member of the set that also includes local celebrity Jeremy Clarkson.
Both the prime minister and his former aide did dodge Brooks, who also lives nearby with her husband, Charlie, a friend of the prime minister's.
Brooks enjoyed warm relations with the prime minister before the phone-hacking scandal escalated – the Leveson inquiry heard how he sent texts to her signed "LOL" while she sent him a sycophantic text inviting him for "country supper" at her Oxfordshire home and telling him she was "so rooting" for him as "not just as a proud friend but because professional we're definitely in this together".
Their relationship has been less publicly close since last July when the News of the World, which was in her charge at News International, became the subject of a Scotland Yard investigation.
Brooks was recently charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after a Met investigation into phone hacking, while Coulson has been charged with alleged perjury in relation to a trial of former Scottish MP Tommy Sheridan. Both deny the charges and are fighting to clear their names.
Neither Coulson nor Cameron bumped into Brooks, who was dressed casually, in a Barbour waxed jacket, long earrings and fashionable pale blue Hunter wellies as she chatted with friends outside a bar tent.
Cameron's constituency home in Witney is close to Great Tew, while the Brookses live in nearby Sarsden.
All three were present on Saturday, the second day of the annual music and arts extravaganza, which has been running for nine years in the Oxfordshire countryside. Headline acts at this year's event included Jools Holland, Alison Moyet, Marc Almond and Elvis Costello.
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Rebekah Brooks also attends Oxfordshire event at which PM and his former spin chief are reported to have exchanged words
They haven't been seen together since he was forced to quit as No 10 director of communications in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal almost 18 months ago.
But now David Cameron and Andy Coulson have landed themselves in another minor controversy after they both unexpectedly showed up at an Oxfordshire music festival, said to be of the highlights of the Chipping Norton social calendar, also attended by former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.
Photographers say they saw them briefly exchange words. Downing Street says categorically they did not. A spokesman for No 10 said: "They did not speak or meet – it's categorical."
A photographer, working for an unidentified news agency, says he witnessed them exchanging words outside a hospitality tent. But the two men were not snapped together in conversation.
Pictures of the two men at the festival were separately captured by a photographer from a second news agency, INS. "From what my photographer told me, they did chat, only very briefly," said Neil Hyde, news editor of the INS agency whose photographer was at the festival.
The Cornbury Music Festival is held at Great Tew, West Oxfordshire, near David Cameron's consituency home. Coulson's presence at an event close to Chipping Norton is more surprising than Cameron's, given that the former spin chief's family home is miles away in Forest Hill, near Dulwich, south London.
However, local reporters believe that Coulson has recently moved to the area from south London, which would make him a fully fledged member of the set that also includes local celebrity Jeremy Clarkson.
Both the prime minister and his former aide did dodge Brooks, who also lives nearby with her husband, Charlie, a friend of the prime minister's.
Brooks enjoyed warm relations with the prime minister before the phone-hacking scandal escalated – the Leveson inquiry heard how he sent texts to her signed "LOL" while she sent him a sycophantic text inviting him for "country supper" at her Oxfordshire home and telling him she was "so rooting" for him as "not just as a proud friend but because professional we're definitely in this together".
Their relationship has been less publicly close since last July when the News of the World, which was in her charge at News International, became the subject of a Scotland Yard investigation.
Brooks was recently charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after a Met investigation into phone hacking, while Coulson has been charged with alleged perjury in relation to a trial of former Scottish MP Tommy Sheridan. Both deny the charges and are fighting to clear their names.
Neither Coulson nor Cameron bumped into Brooks, who was dressed casually, in a Barbour waxed jacket, long earrings and fashionable pale blue Hunter wellies as she chatted with friends outside a bar tent.
Cameron's constituency home in Witney is close to Great Tew, while the Brookses live in nearby Sarsden.
All three were present on Saturday, the second day of the annual music and arts extravaganza, which has been running for nine years in the Oxfordshire countryside. Headline acts at this year's event included Jools Holland, Alison Moyet, Marc Almond and Elvis Costello.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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