THEY are the wives of Britain’s new leaders, but they have quite different images.

Mrs Samantha Cameron, the wife of Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron, dubbed SamCam by the media, adopted a higher profile during the election.

Mrs Miriam Clegg, wife of the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, had been quietly going about her job.

Now that the Conservative-Lib-Dem coalition has assumed power, the wives, like their husbands, will have to get to know each other better.

It’s not just the roles they had during the gruelling campaigning that make them as different as chalk and cheese, the Daily Mail reported.

Stylish

Mrs Cameron is seen as an epitome of style.

The 39-year-old celebrated her first day as UK’s First Lady in a smart maternity dress she borrowed from a friend.

She teamed that with a grey Joseph jacket, Russell and Bromley flat pumps and a tote bag from luxury stationers Smythson, of which she is creative director – its “Nancy” bag was named after her daughter and sells for £1,000 (S$2,000).

Mrs Cameron, who has always been the main breadwinner in the household, with a six-figure salary, is expecting her fourth child in September.

The Camerons have a daughter, six, and a son, four. Their son, Ivan, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died last year.

Mrs Clegg, 42, who reportedly prefers to be known by her maiden name, Miriam González Durántez, also looked polished yesterday morning on her way to work.

The Spanish-born lawyer, who reportedly out-earns her husband, wore a beige trench coat , black trousers and flat pumps.

Stylists The Daily Mail spoke to said that MrsCameron – “SamCam” in some reports – has a sense of style that makes her look good without the help of designer labels.

Said stylist Ceril Campbell: “She understands fashion and she understands what is needed when you’ve become a brand yourself to be appropriate for that brand. She has a knack of looking good.”

But Mrs Cameron, a baronet’s daughter, said she is not “permanently glamorous”.
Ms Gonzalez Durantez, meanwhile, stressed her own work commitments when asked why she didn’t spend much time on the campaign trail.

In a reply that could be seen as a swipe at Mrs Cameron, the mother of three boys said she did not have the “luxury” of abandoning her job for an election campaign, reported The Daily Mail.

“How am I going to do that while I have children and I have a busy job?” she said.

“Well, listen, I don’t have the luxury of having a job that I can simply abandon for five weeks, and I imagine that that is the situation for most people in the country.

She also said in a previous interview that the media focus on the leaders’ wives’ clothes was frivolous, reported AFP.

When asked if the coverage was patronising, she replied: “Patronising is putting it very diplomatically.”

Whether these two wives can form a coalition of their own remains to be seen.

This article was first published in The New Paper.