How Raisa the police horse came to symbolise the close links between Cameron and the Murdochs The prospect of any further revelations receded however, until it emerged in evidence to Metropolitan Police officers to the Leveson inquiry in March this year that Mrs Brooks had been lent a retired police horse called Raisa by the Metropolitan Police. The suggestions looked like special treatment, because Raisa was one of only 12 horses lent by Scotland Yard in 2008 and there is normally a long waiting list. The story of Raisa - nicknamed "horsegate" by users of the Twitter microblogging website - was taking on a political dimension. The Daily Telegraph repeatedly asked the Prime Minister'"s official spokesman whether Mr Cameron had ever ridden the animal. The Prime Minister's official spokesman dodged the question. After three days Mr Cameron finally confessed during in a television. It's a matter of record that I have ridden horses with Rebekah Brooks's husband in my constituency. Since becoming Prime Minister, I may have got on a horse once, but not that one. Within hours, the line changed again. Aides in Downing Street briefed it was "highly possible that he was on that horse." Mr Cameron finally came clean in the unlikely setting of a press conference at the end of a European Union summit in Brussels on March 2. He said: "Before the election I did go riding with him. He has a number of different horses and yes one of them was this former police horse Raisa, which I did ride. Mr Cameron apologised for failing to come clean earlier, when The Daily Telegraph first started asking questions about the horse. He added: "If a confusing picture has emerged over the last few days, I am very sorry about that. I think my staff have had to answer a lot of questions about horses. The admission came too late to stop the story assuming the same symbolic value as the infamous duck house, which was claimed by one MP involved in the expenses scandal three years ago, and came to represent the scandal.