WHEN David Cameron moved into Downing Street on Tuesday night, it marked the final steps in a 22-year journey, as well as the beginning of a new era.

And it is a story that for the past decade Oxfordshire has played a pivotal part in.

West Oxfordshire residents elected Mr Cameron, a former Eton College pupil and Oxford University graduate, as Witney MP in 2001 after he had stood for election for Stafford four years earlier, failing in that attempt.

His constituents watched him rise rapidly through the ranks to take on the mantle of party leader in 2005, following the resignation of Michael How-ard.

And almost 10 years to the day after he was selected by West Oxfordshire Conservatives to fight for Witney, he entered Downing Street as the youngest Prime Minister for almost 200 years.

Mr Cameron’s journey started in earnest in 1988 when he graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford, with a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

He became an adviser to Conservative front benchers including Chancellor Norman Lamont and Prime Minister John Major, and worked on the 1992 election campaign.

In the 1990s he became director of corporate affairs at Carlton Communications before failing to get elected as MP for Stafford in 1997. Four years later it was a different story.

In 2001, Mr Cameron swept to victory in Witney with a majority of more than 7,000.

Less than 12 hours after he was elected, Mr Cameron performed his first public engagement, opening a new hall at Hailey Primary School.

In the 2005 election he doubled his majority in the West Oxfordshire constituency, winning nearly 50 per cent of the vote.

But it was in the months following the election that his journey to Downing Street took a huge leap forward.

A defeated Michael Howard quit and, against the odds, Mr Cameron beat party heavyweight David Davies to become leader.

But his student days retur-ned to haunt him after a photo surfaced of him, and fellow Conservative Boris Johnson, during their time as members of the infamous and elite Bullingdon Club.

Last year, Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha suffered a personal tragedy when their eldest child, six-year-old Ivan, who had severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy, passed away.

Mr Cameron later revealed his son’s death made him question his future in politics.

Mr Cameron said Ivan had brought “great joy and happiness”.

The Camerons’ have two other children and are expecting another in September.

The Conservative leader escaped relatively unscathed from last year’s MPs expenses scandal that engulfed Parliament He did admit to almost £1,000 in wrongly claimed expenses relating to items such as repairs to his house and compensation for utility bills.

On election night, Mr Cameron stopped off at the New Inn in Witney for a quick drink with regulars before moving on to the election count, where he increased his majority to more than 22,000.

Before he left the Windrush Leisure Centre in the early hours of Friday morning to embark on five days of talks that would end on the doorstep of Number 10, he promised constituents he would stand up for West Oxfordshire no matter what the future held.