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David Cameron’s son dies
Wednesday 25th February 2009, 3:45PM GMT.
David and Samantha Cameron pictured at their London home with children, Nancy, Arthur and Ivan. The family photograph was used by the Conservative Party leader on his 2008 Christmas card.
Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s disabled son Ivan died early today.
The six-year-old, who suffered from a rare cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, was taken ill overnight and died at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London.
It is understood the Camerons were with him at the time of his death. Ivan, who required round-the-clock care all his life, was the eldest child of the Tory leader and his wife Samantha.
Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, which Mr Cameron had been due to attend, was called off at Gordon Brown’s suggestion.
The formal unveiling of a new portrait of ex-prime minister Lady Thatcher, which Mr Cameron was due to attend at Number 10 later today, has also been postponed.
The Prime Minister, whose own baby daughter died in 2002, told the Commons: “I know that in his all too brief life (Ivan) brought joy to all those around him and I know that for all the days of his life he was surrounded by his family’s love.
“Every child is precious and irreplaceable and the death of a child is an unbearable sorrow that no parent should have to endure.”
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, standing in for Mr Cameron at the despatch box, thanked Mr Brown for his “heartfelt” comments.
Mr Hague told MPs he had spoken to Mr Cameron today, who wanted to pass on the family’s thanks for their messages of condolence and say how “hugely grateful” they are to the NHS staff who have helped Ivan throughout his life.
Mr Hague said: “Ivan’s six years of life were not easy ones. His parents lived with the knowledge for a long time that he could die young, but this has made their loss no less heart-breaking.”
Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for the Wrekin, said: “This is a great personal tragedy for the whole of the Cameron family.”
Mr and Mrs Cameron have two other children, Nancy, five, and Arthur, three.
By David Burrows
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This is sad and proves that he is only human as so many forget with politicians
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Mark Pritchard proving why he’s the man to represent us in Parliament – he must have a degree in stating the bleeding obvious.
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At a sad time like this – we get the comment like that above from dobbs. Enough said. My sincere condolences to the Camerons (as they would have gone to a politician from any party), a little 6 year old, after a traumatic life has passed on, rest in peace little fellow.
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I sympathise deeply with any family who loose a child. It is surely one of the deepest of sadnesses, but the hypocracy of Politicians when they talk of every child being precious, then go on to allow the bombing and murder of Palestinian Mothers and Children, is sickening.
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Brizzie, well said, the plight of the Palestinian mothers and children should stir the conscience of the decent world – but it won’t. A terrible, terrible crime has been committed against them and a purportedly “civilized” state has waged war against them indiscriminately and we do nothing.
If the sad death of little Ivan was the catalyst that pricked our conscience and made us see Palestine for what it is, an oppressed and subjugated state with its people murdered, bombed and terrorised then his troubled little life will not have been in vain.
Let’s hope that somewhere in Westminster, someone will also think like you and remember the children and mothers of the occupied territories of the Middle East.
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I first of all want to offer my deepest condolences to David Cameron and his wife and family for the tragic loss of the precious child Ivan. I have felt the loss of a child and the loss of my handicapped brother and want to add that losing a child is bad enough but losing such a dependent child is truly terrible and cannot be underestimated in any way. Ivan was only lent to this world for a short time, but believe this his presence has been constructive in shaping all around him to be more compassionate and understanding towards others. I speak with experience on this matter as I am still in mourning myself. I lament the passing of this child and others like him. Deepest Condolescences are wished.
Diana Cook
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meanwhile 3 fathers lost sons in afghanistan on the same day and no one mentioned it, sickening, every child is precious, including the heroic if slightly misguided ones occupying the muslim world, we should not forget every day there is something so tragic for our military families
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jonty, the three soldiers who lost their lives were mentioned by all three party leaders in the Commons that day so you are wrong. The soldiers were adults and men fighting in a war and they were not forgotten nor won’t be in the years to come.
Where is the equivalence between these and innocent women and children deliberately bombed to smithereens by a heartless, cruel and bloodthirsty modern army. I think you will agree, in the overall order of things, there is nothing so gut wrenching than the death of innocent, disabled children. And the muslims I was talking about are not misguided, they were mothers and toddlers, small children in schools and hospitals, I repeat, deliberately targetted by a ruthless enemy without regard for their age, gender or degree of innocense.
Nobody, but nobody bothers with them, the world merely looks on without a care or concern.
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Stuart,
It must be almost unheard of for you and I to agree on anything, but I agree absolutely with your comments above. It’s perfectly clear to me that David Cameron and his family cared deeply for Ivan, and I was saddened to hear of his death.
I too abhor the recent treatment of Palestinian civilians – but I can’t see that politicians of any flavour in this country could have done anything to prevent it. Israel is a rogue state, protected from any international outcry by the US.
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Peter, the plight of the Palestinians cuts across the boundaries of all “decent” people and I stress that word, no matter what their politics, leanings or affiliations are. Simplistic I know, but I view the behaviour of Israel as being so cruel, extreme and brutal that I look at a person in a different light if he/she supports what that country does. I take the view that anybody who supports Israel cannot be “nice to know” but I am biased, having an extreme aversion to “state terror”, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I know Israel, the West Bank and to a lesser extent, Gaza very well. My wife and I have experienced at first hand some of the diabolical practices and policies of the Israelis and it is a state that has, for far to long flouted and abused every norm of civilized and decent behaviour. Had any other country on earth committed the atrocities that Israel has, the consequences would have put Iraq in the shade with the double dealing Americans in the forefront of an invasion and “change of regime”.
My instinctive, natural inclinations because of Iraq, support for Israel and her bullying, war-like policies, make me “anti-American” also. I regard the US just as guilty as Israel and they both insult the decent world.
I just hope Obama will be a force for good but listening to Hilary Clinton’s outbursts about the Middle East makes me very pessimistic.
Nice to know that we can agree on foreign issues re Palestine even if we can’t on homegrown matters.
Gerald Kaufman to me, is one of the most honourable, honest, humane and principled men I know of. He is a Labour stalwart of the old school, a Jew to his finger tips and about the only politician of any party that I would trust to the hilt. He is one of the few that are arch critics of Israel, that takes courage and I have great respect for him, a good man. Oh! that there were many more like him.
Each of us should feel ashamed when we see what Israel does and we do nothing.
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