May: I didn’t go soft on migrants
PM’s allies hit back at Cameron camp over claims ‘ lily livered’ Theresa blocked crackdown before Brexit poll
THERESA May last night launched a blistering fightback against attempts by allies of David Cameron to make her look soft on immigration.
Friends of Mrs May revealed she had written to Mr Cameron at least twice when he was PM to demand stricter border controls and a brake on EU immigration – only to be ignored.
And they said that, when Mrs May spoke publicly about the need for tougher rules on immigration, Mr Cameron’s team called her ‘lily livered’. The then Home Secretary was also labelled an ‘enemy agent’ by one of the former PM’s aides when she refused to support the Remain campaign, it was claimed.
The explosive row was triggered by the publication of two new books on the referendum campaign, one of which was written by Mr Cameron’s ex-spin doctor, Sir Craig Oliver.
Mr Cameron’s allies attacked Mrs May for failing to give her full backing to the Remain camp as it slumped to a historic defeat on June 23. They also said she had failed to back him on the idea of a brake to limit the number of EU migrants pouring in, leading to Mr Cameron dumping the idea.
Friends of Mrs May are worried the attacks are part of a concerted attack by a rump of Cameron supporters to destabilise her Government. Sir Craig was not the source of the claims about Mrs May scuppering the emergency brake. This originated with two other unnamed Cameron allies. The contested allegations come only days after George Osborne made his own attack on Mrs May for her handling of the Brexit negotiations so far – with tensions between the two rival camps now threatening to boil over.
Sir Craig, who was knighted by Mr Cameron, said his old boss asked Mrs May 13 times to ‘come off the fence’ and give a full-throated endorsement of the EU but was ‘stonewalled’. In his book, Unleashing Demons, he described her as a ‘submarine’ and ‘sphinx-like’ and suggested her silence was calculated to benefit from a Leave win. Mrs May only nailed her colours to the mast, he claimed, after Mr Cameron became so ‘ wound up’ during a phone call that he hung up on her.
Sir Craig wrote: ‘ Amid the murder and betrayal of the campaign, one figure stayed very still at the centre of it all – Theresa May. Now she is the last one standing.’
In a second book, by Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman, friends of Mr Cameron branded Mrs May ‘lily livered’ for allegedly telling him not to press ahead with plans for an emergency brake on EU migrants.
At a meeting in November 2014, she is said to have pointed out that Germany would not approve of the idea. This led to Mr Cameron dropping the plan only hours before he was due to make a major speech on what his EU negotiation demands would be, it is claimed. The unnamed aides say that, had Mrs May not blown Mr Cameron off course, he could have won the referendum and still be inside No 10.
The account was fiercely contested by Downing Street. Sources said Mrs May had repeatedly pressed for stricter border controls. Writing to Mr Cameron in November 2014, she explicitly called for an emergency brake. Crucially, she also wrote to the PM in May 2015 – when his negotiations were beginning – to again call for a brake.
Senior Tories leapt to Mrs May’s defence – accusing the Cameron camp of being embittered about losing power and trying to blame anybody but themselves. Ex-Cabinet Minister Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘These are the people who arrogantly believed they had the keys to the kingdom. Now they have been knocked aside and they sim- ply cannot cope with it.’ He also made a withering attack on Sir Craig’s decision to write his book, saying: ‘In the past, a knight of the realm who had failed in battle and lost would have quit the field and retired in humility to better understand their own failings.
‘I sat in Cabinet and watched Theresa May argue for stronger control of migration from the EU, often against others who later ran the Remain campaign.’
Sir Craig said last night: ‘Iain appears to have got the wrong end of the stick. I have not made the specific allegations he claims. The book is a sincere and honest attempt to explain what went wrong – and I take full responsibility for the mistakes made by the campaign.’
A spokesman for Mrs May said: ‘It is completely and utterly untrue to suggest that Theresa did not want immigration controls to be part of David Cameron’s EU renegotiation.’