STAFF at a used car dealership in Minister Lovell were left stunned over the weekend when David Cameron turned up and bought a £1,500 Nissan Micra for his wife.

The Prime Minister and Witney MP visited Witney Used Car Centre on Friday evening, looking for a British-made hatchback costing less than £2,000.

Centre owner Iain Harris said the PM revealed he was buying it for Samantha Cameron to use and jumped inside for a quick spin around the car park to test it.

Mr Harris, 44, said he was given about half an hour's notice of the visit through a phone call from one of Mr Cameron's security guards.

"I thought it was a wind-up," he told the Oxford Mail.

But, sure enough, the Prime Minister arrived and picked out the blue Micra, which was 12 years old and had more than 90,000 miles on its clock. 

He came back the next morning and paid for the vehicle by card, Mr Harris said, before getting in himself and driving away, security detail in tow.

Father-of-two Mr Harris, from Carterton, added: "It was incredibly surreal. You don't expect to speak to the Prime Minister and definitely not about getting a second-hand car for his wife.

"The micra ticked all the boxes. There were a few marks on it, as you'd expect, but to be fair the car drove really nicely.

"I take people as I take people, so he could have been the Queen or the Prime Minister and I would still treat him like a customer looking to buy a car.

"I joked that he wouldn't want a red one and the security guys were in stitches."

Mr Harris added: "He was just like a normal bloke buying a car for his wife, apart from all the other people walking around with guns."