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‘Boris’s agonising was genuine’
DAVID Cameron took aim at the ‘liars’ of the Leave campaign yesterday as he lambasted Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
The former prime minister said he felt betrayed by Mr Gove, a personal friend, and claimed Mr Johnson only backed Brexit ‘because it would help his political career’.
In extracts from his memoirs, published in The Sunday Times, he said Mr Johnson had taken a calculated decision to join the Leave campaign because he saw it as ‘a risk-free bet on himself’.
He claimed Mr Johnson – who has said he would rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than delay Brexit – had privately said he favoured renegotiation with the EU, followed by another referendum.
But Mr Cameron’s most stinging attack was on Mr Gove, his former justice secretary, who he described as a ‘ foam- flecked Faragist’ – a reference to former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
He wrote: ‘As for Michael, one quality shone through: disloyalty. Disloyalty to me – and later, disloyalty to Boris.’
The former Tory leader described the Leave campaign as a ‘cauldron of toxicity’ and said its key architects – Mr Farage, Dominic Cummings and businessman Arron Banks – had ‘something of the night about them’.
And he accused its supporters of lying to the British public, including the claim that Britain sent £350million per week to the EU, which appeared on the Leave campaign bus.
Writing in his memoir, For the Record, which is out this week, he said: ‘It wasn’t true. As Boris rode the bus round the country, he left the truth at home.’
He said Mr Johnson had not believed that voters would want to leave the EU, but had thought his support for the Leave campaign would make him ‘the darling of the party’.
He wrote: ‘I kept saying: don’t take the course that you fundamentally think is wrong for the country. To be fair, his agonising was genuine... The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career.’
Mr Cameron said his biggest shock had been the behaviour of his then employment minister Priti Patel, now Home Secretary.
He said: ‘ She used every announcement, interview and speech to hammer the Government on immigration, even though she was part of that government. I was stuck, though: unable to fire her, because that would make her a Brexit martyr.’
Mr Cameron admitted the Remain campaign made ‘big mistakes’ and said he had to take a share of the responsibility.
The tight margin of the Brexit result meant it was ‘not farfetched’ to think he could have changed the outcome, he said, adding: ‘I think about it every day, turning it all over in my head.’
It came as the founder of the Waterstones book chain said Mr Cameron’s book will fail to make an impact.
Sir Tim Waterstone told BBC Radio 4: ‘If this had come out two years ago he would have had a big bestseller with it.
‘Now we are in the middle of the biggest political crisis we have seen in this country for decades and decades. He is very much yesterday’s man.’
Mr Johnson and Mr Gove have not responded to Mr Cameron’s criticisms. Miss Patel told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: ‘Obviously the referendum has happened, we’ve all moved on, and the fact of the matter is, we are now working to deliver that referendum mandate. There is no point in going over the past.’