David Cameron's mother has won an award for campaigning against the closure of a children's centre hit by cuts his government brought in.

Mary Cameron was crowned Mother Knows Best of the Year for her 10,000-strong petition opposing her local Conservative council shutting the facility in Oxfordshire, where she used to volunteer.

The centre was forced to close after a spending review under the former prime minister left councils in England facing a loss of 24 per cent in central government funding by 2020.

Ms Cameron, a retired magistrate now in her eighties, signed a petition a year ago against plans to shut 44 children’s centres in and around her son’s former constituency of Witney.

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Confirming her local Chieveley and Area Children’s Centre in Berkshire had had shut its doors, she said at the time: "I am very sad that it is being closed down but if there’s not enough money to pay for it things have to go.

“I enjoy it very much and have been going there for a year and drive families around occasionally.

“I don’t really know what can be done really as I’ve just heard about it. If it closes down, then I shan’t be volunteering because there will be no one to volunteer for.”

The centre was closed by Tory-run West Berkshire Council to save £300,000, despite catering for about 670 children under the age of five.

It offered free courses in first aid training for babies, general childcare and healthy eating advice.

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The Oldie of the Year Awards, held at London's Simpson's-in-the-Strand, also paid tribute to actress Vanessa Redgrave and Labour peer Lord Dubs, who both won Campaigner of the Year awards for their work supporting unaccompanied child refugees arriving in Britain.

American senator Bernie Sanders was given the Should-Have-Been of the Year award after he rose to global prominence as the challenger to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.