SamCam steps down from Smythson job

New PM David Cameron's wife Samantha Cameron quits her job and says it's a decision she had been 'considering for sometime'...

Samantha Cameron, wife of new Prime Minister David, has stepped down from her role as creative director of upmarket stationary firm Smythson.

Samantha, 39, who is five months' pregnant, now plans to work two days a week as a creative consultant for the firm, the Daily Mail reports. The decision will mean an inevitable cut in a salary reported to be have been in the region of £400,000, compared with the £142,500 a year her husband will earn as Prime Minister.

She said: 'This is a personal decision made when I discovered I was pregnant and one that I have been considering for some time during what has been an understandably difficult year.

'I look forward to my changed role and balancing it with my new day-to-day life as well as being able to spend more time with my children.'

The announcement came on her second day as Prime Minister's wife.

The Camerons' personal life took a tragic turn with the death of their disabled six-year-old son, Ivan, last year. The couple have a daughter, Nancy Gwen, and a son, Arthur, and are expecting their fourth child in September.

The move by Mrs Cameron is in contrast to Cherie Blair who carried on working as a human rights lawyer and judge, sometimes leading to an embarrassing conflict of interest with her husband's work.

Like Mrs Cameron, Sarah Brown also chose to quit her successful PR job in 2001 when she found out she was pregnant. She later got heavily involved in charity work when her husband became PM.

Samantha has been at Smythson, a thriving Bond Street firm selling leather goods and stationery, for 14 years.