‘Enemy agent’ May refused to help PM on Brexit, books claim
THERESA MAY refused to assist David Cameron’s campaign to keep Britain in the European Union and even told him to drop plans for tougher immigration controls, two accounts of the referendum campaign reveal.
Mr Cameron begged Mrs May to “come off the fence” ahead of the referendum but her refusals led to her being described as “an enemy agent” by allies of the former prime minister. Mrs May eventually backed Mr Cameron’s Remain campaign, but made only one notable intervention during the almost six-month long campaign.
This led to Downing Street nicknaming her as “submarine May” because of her habit of disappearing when Mr Cameron asked for help, it is alleged.
The claims are contained in a new book by Sir Craig Oliver, who served as Mr Cameron’s director of communications in Downing Street.
The book also alleges that Michael
Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, assured Mr Cameron at a Christmas party that the former education secretary would back the Remain campaign.
And it claims that Boris Johnson, now the Foreign Secretary, told Mr Cameron that the Brexit campaign would be “crushed like a toad” just minutes before announcing that he was himself joining the Leave campaign. Mr Gove and Mr Johnson are crediting with turning around the fortunes of the Leave campaign and ultimately ensuring that Britain voted to quit the EU.
Mrs May’s allies will claim that the allegations are an attempt to discredit the new Prime Minister following her decision to distance herself from Mr Cameron’s previous administration since taking office.
Separately, another account of the referendum campaign claims that Mr Cameron described Mrs May as “lilylivered” after she told him not to press ahead with a tough “emergency brake” to limit migration.
In the book All Out War, by Tim Shipman, serialised in The Sunday Times, it is claimed that Mrs May failed to support Mr Cameron’s plans to limit the number of EU migrants allowed to come to Britain, saying that the Germans would not give the go-ahead to the plans.
The book claims that Mrs May and Philip Hammond, now the Chancellor, “folded” and killed off the plans, which could have swung the referendum towards the Remain campaign.
It is claimed that after Mrs May, now the Prime Minister, and Mr Hammond said they could not support the plans, Mr Cameron said: “If it wasn’t for my lily-livered Cabinet colleagues.”
The claims, which are disputed by Mrs May’s aides, could prove damaging to the new Prime Minister as she begins negotiating the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU.
Sir Craig’s book, Unleashing Demons, which is being serialised in The Mail
On Sunday, also states that Mr Johnson had one day before joining Leave sent Mr Cameron another message which had convinced the former prime minister that he was preparing to change his mind and back the Remain campaign, Sir Craig claims.
The disclosures in both books will intensify concerns amongst Mrs May’s allies that Mr Cameron and those close to him are determined to destabilise her premiership.