David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, left their eight-year-old daughter, Nancy, in a pub after having Sunday lunch, Downing Street has confirmed.
She is reported to have spent a quarter of an hour at the Plough Inn at Cadsden, in Buckinghamshire, before Mr Cameron returned to collect her.
Number 10 said the couple had been "distraught" when they realised Nancy was not with them.
It said the incident had happened "a couple of months ago".
The Camerons were at the pub, near the prime minister's country residence, Chequers, with Nancy and their other children Arthur, six, and 22-month-old Florence, as well as two other families.
After leaving, Mr Cameron went home in one car with his bodyguards and thought Nancy was with his wife and their other children in another car.
'Nightmare'
Mrs Cameron had assumed her elder daughter was with her father. The mistake was discovered when they got home.
When the prime minister returned to collect Nancy he found her helping staff.
Downing Street said no protection officers would face disciplinary action over the incident, adding that security arrangements were constantly under review.
A spokesman said: "The prime minister and Samantha were distraught when they realised Nancy wasn't with them.
"Thankfully when they phoned the pub she was there safe and well. The prime minister went down straight away to get her."
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who is promoting a scheme to give English councils a financial incentive to deal with "troubled families", was asked on BBC Radio 5 live if he drew parallels between them and parents who inadvertently left their children in a pub.
"We're definitely not talking about that - mainly for my job security," he replied.
Mr Pickles was also asked about the incident during a BBC News Channel interview, saying: "I'm very glad that Nancy was missing for only 15 minutes. It could happen to anybody. It must be any family's nightmare."
Source
She is reported to have spent a quarter of an hour at the Plough Inn at Cadsden, in Buckinghamshire, before Mr Cameron returned to collect her.
Number 10 said the couple had been "distraught" when they realised Nancy was not with them.
It said the incident had happened "a couple of months ago".
The Camerons were at the pub, near the prime minister's country residence, Chequers, with Nancy and their other children Arthur, six, and 22-month-old Florence, as well as two other families.
After leaving, Mr Cameron went home in one car with his bodyguards and thought Nancy was with his wife and their other children in another car.
'Nightmare'
Mrs Cameron had assumed her elder daughter was with her father. The mistake was discovered when they got home.
When the prime minister returned to collect Nancy he found her helping staff.
Downing Street said no protection officers would face disciplinary action over the incident, adding that security arrangements were constantly under review.
A spokesman said: "The prime minister and Samantha were distraught when they realised Nancy wasn't with them.
"Thankfully when they phoned the pub she was there safe and well. The prime minister went down straight away to get her."
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who is promoting a scheme to give English councils a financial incentive to deal with "troubled families", was asked on BBC Radio 5 live if he drew parallels between them and parents who inadvertently left their children in a pub.
"We're definitely not talking about that - mainly for my job security," he replied.
Mr Pickles was also asked about the incident during a BBC News Channel interview, saying: "I'm very glad that Nancy was missing for only 15 minutes. It could happen to anybody. It must be any family's nightmare."
Source
I remember once, when my parents were an hour late to collect me from school, telling the headmaster that they were "probably down the pub". I don't think they've ever fully forgiven me.
Though at the time I was just like "well I guess I'll just wait for them to come back..."
At least he's honest!
Doesn't really change my opinion of Cameron one way or the other...
Quarter of an hour somehow sounds a little more intimidating.
"Tell me, have you ever gone on vacation and left your child home?"
"No, but I did leave one in a funeral parlor once. The wife and I left him there all day. All day alone with the corpse. But he was okay. After six or seven weeks, he came around, started talking again. But he's okay. They get over it. Kids are resilient like that."
Getting left behind is never a good feeling, but at least Nancy was left at a pub and not a funeral parlor.
"I thought you had her."
"I thought you had her."
It hasn't happened to my hubby and me--yet--but we always do a verbal "headcount" to each other at parting to make sure all kids are accounted for in one car or the other.*
They apparently realized she was missing as soon as everyone was at home, and she doesn't seem traumatized over it. I bet she'll gets a good guilt-gift out of it!
*Full disclaimer- We did temporarily lose a preschooler while walking out of store once. Scary stuff.
The biggest problem is that people are so sure they never could forget their child that they won't take precautions against it. Major trigger warning: Fatal Distraction - on children who died in hot cars.
I posted about it a while back -- it was very rare before guidelines to never have a child in the front seat.
The Tories have nothing but bad things to say about single mothers not looking after or raising their own children right, which considering how many have nannies and send their kids to boarding schools that confuses the fuck out of me. That's not rasing your kids first hand, that's other people taking on those responsiblities so you can go be a millionare wanker.
My mum was freaking the fuck out and I was up in the arcade watching the horse racing games like a bamf
My dad still likes to tell people about 'the time johnjie's mother tried to abandon her in London at midnight'.
But this? Things happen. 15 minutes misplaced because of a miscommunication? Hello, its human. Pretty common.
On the other hand, he's the PM. With an entire coterie of staff, wasn't there at least one staff person or security person (what do they call the Secret Service equivalent over there?) keeping an eye on the kid?