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The Prime Minister was today accused of swilling fine wine as he fired Tory minister Cheryl Gillan.

A blog claimed David Cameron was enjoying a glass of red as the Welsh Secretary was being kicked out of the Cabinet.

Mr Cameron also faced fury over his decision to hand honours to five men sacked in what is being dubbed his Cabernet reshuffle.

Sir George Young, axed as Commons Leader, was made a Companion of Honour, while Lib Dem Nick Harvey and three Tories were given knighthoods.

Critics accused the PM of abusing the honours system and slammed him for also missing out all the women he sacked.

Mr Cameron is also said to have suggested that Caroline Spelman, 54, was too old to carry on as Environment Secretary – despite being replaced by Owen Paterson, 56.

He told Ms Spelman that she was “of Sir George Young’s generation” even though he is 71, her local paper the East Anglia Daily Times said.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper said that last week’s reshuffle showed a “real problem in the way the Prime Minister treats women”.

The shadow Home Secretary raged: “If these accounts are true it seems he has a problem with older women too.

"He seems to be living in another century.”

Tonight, No10 insisted the PM didn’t mean to suggest Ms Spelman was too old and denied he drank wine while axing Ms Gillan.