Brexit ‘a mistake, not a disaster’ Cameron admits in Davos video
DAVID CAMERON has admitted that Brexit is not the disaster he repeatedly predicted during the EU referendum.
The former prime minister, criticised as the architect of what was described as “Project Fear” ahead of the referendum, said the UK’S withdrawal from the EU would be “difficult”.
In a conversation caught on camera with Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian steel tycoon, at the Davos summit in Switzerland, Mr Cameron was heard saying: “It’s frustrating – as I keep saying it’s a mistake, not a disaster. It’s turned out less badly than we first thought. It’s still going to be difficult.”
His comments came as Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, backed Boris Johnson’s call to use the UK’S Brexit dividend to boost NHS funding, declaring it “absolutely unthinkable” for the health service not to benefit.
Meanwhile, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, put himself on a collision course with Eurosceptic MPS after he said Brussels could impose new laws on the UK during a transition period.
Mr Cameron’s comments at the World Economic Forum are not the first time he has been caught out by a live microphone. In 2014 he was recorded saying the Queen had “purred” down the line after he told her Scotland had voted against independence.
Mr Cameron spearheaded the campaign to keep the UK in the EU, having taken the decision to offer the nation a vote on the subject. He described Brexit as the “gamble of the century” before the poll on June 23, 2016.
Mr Cameron was criticised after George Osborne, then-chancellor, published an official Treasury document in April 2016 which warned Brexit would cost UK households £4,300 a year.
He resigned as prime minister in the immediate aftermath of the result.
His comments in Davos came after Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, was given a dressing-down by Theresa May in front of ministers at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after his plan to hand the NHS an extra £100million per week was widely briefed to the media.
The Prime Minister said the NHS would be a “top priority” for the money Britain would save once it stopped paying into the EU budget but she stopped short of promising an exact figure.
Mr Johnson received the backing of Dr Fox on Wednesday.
He told Today on BBC Radio Four: “Exactly how we spend the dividend that comes from leaving the European Union will be determined by the priorities we face at the time. I find it absolutely unthinkable that health would not be amongst the top of those.”
Mr Johnson was chided by up to eight senior ministers for briefing the media. However, the criticism is unlikely to deter him from speaking his mind on Brexit as he is reportedly preparing to make the “liberal case” for withdrawal in a speech next month.
Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-mogg warned Britain could be left as the EU’S “lackey” during the Brexit transition period after Mr Davis said Brussels could impose new laws on the UK after the point of withdrawal in March 2019.
Mr Davis told the Brexit Select Committee the UK would accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, continue to play by the rules of single market and make EU budget contributions during a two-year transition.
His comments prompted Mr Reesmogg, a leading Brexiteer and the chairman of the influential European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPS, to claim Britain would effectively be a “vassal state” of the EU.