Elaine Parry, freeholder at Gentleshaw’s Ye Olde Windmill, received a phone call informing her that a mystery VIP guest would be arriving by helicopter the following morning. A helicopter from No.10 landed on the pub’s carpark and the Prime Minister and his team made time to come in for a coffee.
Parry told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser: “I’ve owned the pub for 32 years and nothing like this has happened before. It was very exciting and it’s nice to think he made the effort to visit even though we’re a bit out in the sticks. It’s a very unusual place to see him land.”
She added: “He asked what I thought of the pub trade in general so I told him community pubs are a social focal point in small villages and that I hoped more could be saved.”
The PM was visiting the Staffordshire area as part of his election battle against former Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Cameron, who has promised to make his government the most ‘pub-friendly yet’, emerged as the most popular politician among licensees by a landslide in a recent survey conducted by the PMA. More details about the Conservative’s plans for the next government are expected to be revealed in today’s Queen Speech.