Sir Paul Stephenson and Champneys' Stephen Purdew have friends in high places

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Soon after buying Champneys health spa in Hertfordshire in 2006, Stephen Purdew was interviewed by the respected magazine Growing Business which found him ‘sneering with contempt’ at the prospect of David Cameron becoming PM.

‘I thought we’d had enough of being run by f****** Etonians who haven’t done a day’s work in their lives,’ declared the millionaire  former Midhurst Grammar School boy whose health resort business was started by his mother. ‘He won’t get my vote.’

You might call that a near-miss for Mr Cameron, who’s already in enough trouble for employing former News of the World editor Andy Coulson at No 10.

Friends in high places: Spa boss Stephen Purdew, left,  gave Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson, right, a 20-night stay at the Champneys health resort

Sanctuary: Purdew agreed to let Rebekah Brooks' husband Charlie install a lucrative 'kriotherapy' centre at the Champneys headquarters at Tring, Hertfordshire (pictured)

Purdew’s contempt meant the PM escaped the risk of being drawn into the so-called ‘Champneys set’, a disparate collection of celebrities and VIPs whose widely-publicised patronage helped make it the health spa of choice for those with money to spend on  looking and feeling good.

The wily Purdew long ago cemented a close relationship with fallen News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks by agreeing to have her husband Charlie — a one-time jockey and racehorse trainer — install a lucrative ‘kriotherapy’ centre, in which you subject yourself to sub-zero temperatures for supposed health benefits, at the Champneys headquarters at Tring, Hertfordshire.

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Friends of the amiable Charlie remember him not so many years ago handing out leaflets extolling the system’s benefits. Now, it is one of Champneys’ most popular treatments.

Among its devotees is former heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno, who recovered from his nervous breakdown at Champneys.

Another is Cherie Blair, one of the most dedicated clients of the health spa set in 170 peaceful acres and just half-an-hour’s drive from the Blairs’ country mansion at Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire.

She is an old hand at kriotherapy - wearing a bikini and a pair of thick socks to stop her feet from getting too cold in ice chambers where liquid nitrogen has been used to reduce the temperature  to minus 135 degrees Centigrade - and has been known to reassure first-timers, raising their spirits by leading them in the singing of ‘Always look on the bright side of life’.

Cherie has worked out at Champneys, taken diet treatments and even enjoyed dancing lessons there — she took daughter Kathryn, now 23, for salsa and tango classes.

Footballers, sportsmen, racing  drivers — Stephen Purdew is a friend of them all, entertaining lavishly on his £3 million yacht and penthouse in the South of France and his Lutyens-style mansion in Hertfordshire.

You would never imagine now that when the relentless networker (and Arsenal supporter) was at Bristol University, he would return home every weekend because he didn’t feel he fitted in with the social life there.

Purdew has always been energetic in making sure his business was talked about. In the years of Jim’ll Fix It on BBC1, one of Purdew’s health spas almost invariably appeared in every series. And the presenter Sir Jimmy Savile, 84, remains a good friend.

Connections: The Met hired former News of the World deputy editor and phone-hacking suspect Neil Wallis, who was also a PR consultant at Champneys

One associate of Purdew who was less keen to trumpet his visit to Champneys was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, whom the spa boss says was offered a 20-night stay — valued at £12,000 — to help him get over a pre-cancerous condition. (He, too, is said to have made use of the kriotherapy facilities.)

The revelation that Stephenson unwisely accepted this hospitality helped precipitate his decision to resign on Sunday.

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But Sir Paul is not the first important figure to be given the red carpet treatment at Champneys. Purdew is known to offer special rates to famous faces.

He is also generous in offering sanctuary and care to ‘friends’ — especially those with problems, such as alcoholic footballer Paul Gascoigne. Cynics, of course, are bound to view such philanthropy with scepticism. Well, it is good for the company’s image.

Loyal customers (L-R): Cherie Blair, Frank Bruno and Paul Gascoigne have all enjoyed the Champneys hospitality

But this time — with the resignation of Stephenson — it has drawn his firm into the scandal du jour.

Incidentally, another contributing factor behind the police chief’s resignation was the Met’s hiring of former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as a media consultant.

Founder: Purdew's mother Dorothy started the company 41 years ago

Wallis — who was arrested a few days ago in connection with phone hacking allegations — is also the PR for . . . Stephen Purdew.

It seems the recent turn of events is likely to dismay Purdew’s mother, as a web of issues envelop the company she started 41 years ago as a slimming club at Frinleys, Northants.

Dorothy Purdew, 79, awarded an OBE for services to health and charity, spends most of her time in the South of France, but she remains the company chairman.

Her son was thinking of a career as an accountant when her husband died and he moved into the firm at 21, and eventually took over running it,  turning it into one of the biggest spa operators in the world. He has since spent £14 million sprucing it up.

But his way has never been her way. ‘She was happy for what she did to be spread by word of mouth,’ says a family friend. ‘Stephen had to be a big player, hobnobbing with the famous, making himself one of those people that important people turn to for favours.’

He is certainly close to Keith Vaz, the prominent Labour politician who enjoys being in the company of rich men and is not himself a stranger to allegations of sleaze.

The silken-voiced Vaz and the rougher-sounding Purdew, who is worth in the region of £50 million, are old pals.

Cambridge-educated Vaz says their friendship goes back 20 years, and, indeed, it appears to have started after Purdew’s company took over Springs Hydro in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire (Vaz is the MP for Leicester East).

It was soon publicised that Vaz was among those patronising the gymnasium. Vaz’s daughter Anjali was a bridesmaid when Purdew, 52, married his longtime partner, blonde former model Isabele Cave, 30, two years ago.

Purdew’s son by an earlier relationship, Robert, 19 — who recently did 10 days work experience in Vaz’s office — was best man.

Hot ticket: Rebekah Brooks and Liam Gallgher were among the guests at Purdew's wedding

The wedding was the very apotheosis of smart-set London, a different world from the family of Liverpool dockers into which Purdew’s mother was born.

The ceremony was in the capital’s oldest church, St George’s, Hanover Square, and the reception in the ballroom at Claridge’s.

In her memoir, The Long Road To Champneys, Purdew’s mother Dorothy exudes excitement as she describes the scene at the church: ‘Outside a fair crowd had gathered, no doubt to see our beautiful bride but also to catch a glimpse and take photos of the famous guests that included Sir Jimmy Savile, Frank Bruno, Liam Gallagher and his wife Nicole Appleton, Keith Vaz, EastEnders star Samantha Janus, the late Stephen Gately, chat show host Piers Morgan and various Arsenal legends such as Ian Wright . . .’ And so on.

Rebekah Brooks doesn’t get a mention, though she was among the 240 guests, with Charlie.

Cherie Blair, alas, couldn’t make it as she was at a  women’s conference in Liberia.

But — like others responding to the bridegroom’s wedding list request — her gift was a £500 beech tree to replenish the old and dying woods at Champneys.

Vaz was in good form, proud of his 13-year-old daughter. He is also godfather to one of the Purdews’ small children.

But what form will he be in today when — astonishingly — he apparently intends to chair the Home Affairs Select Committee questioning the luckless Sir Paul?

Just how far will one of Purdew’s good friends go in pursuing the other  good friend, Sir Paul?