Former Downing Street aide Cleo Watson was forced to take emergency action ahead of the launch party for her hit book Whips after discovering her dress was too risqué.
Cleo, nicknamed The Gazelle when she worked for Boris Johnson because of her long legs, had to lengthen her eye-catching dress from cult fashion brand The Vampire’s Wife.
“I actually had to put a little ruffle on the bottom because it was so short,” the glamorous author told me at the Whips party.
The book, described by a Radio 4 reviewer as ‘Fifty Shades of Gray and the Prime Minister’s Questions’, delves into the adventurous sex lives of a group of fictional politicians.
The author revealed in The Mail on Sunday earlier this month how she devised an X-rated bedroom scene while former Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a rather boring session on Brexit at Checkers.
Fashion statements: Cleo Watson and Theresa May at the Whips party
Cleo, nicknamed the Gazelle when working for Boris Johnson (pictured) because of her long legs.
However, this did not deter Mrs May from attending the launch party last Wednesday; She even arrived wearing a pair of red shoes not unlike the ones on the book cover.
Cleo, 34, who is “hopeful” Whips will get the TV commission, says her parents have not yet read the novel but would see the humour.
And he believes the best response so far has come from his legal team.
“The publisher’s lawyers, who read it to analyze the libel aspects, came back with completely different people who they thought the characters were based on,” he says.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s cool, they’re nice and they’re confused. That was a good sign.”‘
Cleo, who has worked in politics for more than a decade, including former US President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, is the second Watson to work closely with a conservative leader.
Her sister Annabel, 44, known as Bee, was May’s chief of staff between 2006 and 2010.