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David Cameron's new baby sleeps not in a cot, but in a cardboard box, the prime minister has said.

Mr Cameron said when Florence was born last month, she did not have a cot so his six-year-old daughter Nancy decorated the box for her to sleep in.

The prime minister's wife Samantha had given birth to the baby girl while the family were on holiday in Cornwall.

Mr Cameron told the Daily Telegraph the baby stayed sleeping in the box, even after they returned to Downing Street.

The Prime Minister said baby Florence is "wonderful and quite well behaved. She eats and sleeps mostly at the relevant time and she's been a delight.

"The other children [six-year-old Nancy, and four-year-old Elwen] adore her and pander to her like mad."

He told the newspaper: "Nancy made her a cardboard box when we were in Cornwall as we didn't have a cot and decorated it and she's still in the cardboard box.

"She'll be able to say I was brought up in Downing Street in a cardboard box."

The birth of Florence coincided with the death of Mr Cameron's father Ian, who suffered a stroke while on holiday in France last month.

The prime minister said he was able to show the 77-year-old around Chequers shortly before he died.

Mr Cameron told the newspaper how he pushed his father around the grounds in a wheelchair and said: "I was determined to get him up the stairs... there's a beautiful room where there's Cromwell's sword and all that.

"He wanted to as well, there's a rope that goes up the stairs, it was bit like going up the North face of the Eiger, he pulled and we pushed and finally we got there, so my last memories of him are very happy."