The troubling reality behind historic clash

SIR CRAIG OLIVER’S memoir of life inside Downing Street during the referendum campaign is vivid, instructive and, at times, deeply troubling.

Most alarmingly, we learn that Boris Johnson was glibly dismissing the chance of a Brexit victory just minutes before coming out publicly to back the cause.

Oliver, who wrote his book in the heat of the Brexit battle, risks the accusation that his is a partial account and an exercise in score-settling.

But he speaks with the authority of someone who had the ear of David Cameron for more than six years.

The Foreign Secretary, who played a pivotal role in the Leave campaign and is now central to our negotiations with Brussels, does not appear to know his own mind on the matter.

Oliver’s recollections – effectively the first draft of Brexit history – also shed an intriguing light on Theresa May.

David Cameron begged Mrs May to campaign for the Remain cause on numerous occasions. She agreed, grudgingly, just once, leading Cameron to believe that she was positioning herself for a leadership bid.

No 10 dubbed her the ‘ submarine’, because while Boris Johnson and Michael Gove fought a poisonous and public battle, at times being economic with the truth, she was steaming silently towards power.

Cameron, understandably, felt deeply frustrated by this approach.

But Mrs May’s calm, discreet, unshowy style could be an asset in the coming years, as she leads the country’s Brexit negotiations.

She has also been bold and impressive in domestic policy, such as her plans to bring back grammar schools, and her one-nation Tory message.

Oliver argues that Remain lost because they relied too heavily on economic scare tactics, and failed to address voters’ concerns about immigration.

But it was legitimate for Cameron to emphasise the risks which Brexit posed. It will not be certain that we have escaped these threats for several years.

That is why it will be so important for Mrs May to demonstrate the better qualities of a ‘submarine’: tough, resilient, purposeful and effective.