DAVID Cameron's eccentric marketing guru is expected to quit Downing Street in protest at the watering down of radical reforms.

Number 10 insiders say Steve Hilton is on the verge of resigning because of retreats over NHS privatisation and other defeats.

A Tory source said yesterday: "I doubt he will stay all the way to the General Election."

The pair have been friends and allies since they worked for the Conservative party after leaving university.

Mr Hilton's future was put into doubt after Mr Cameron's internet guru Rishi Saha quit for a lucrative job for PR firm Hill & Knowlton in Dubai.

Mr Saha was one of the "vanity staff" who the PM shipped in from Tory party headquarters and put on the public payroll, sparking a massive outcry.