Cameron: Boris backed Brexit to help his career
FORMER British Prime Minister David Cameron blasted his Tory successor Boris Johnson yesterday, accusing the UK prime minister of being a fake Brexiteer who only backed Leave to further his career.
Mr Cameron, who quit after leading the failed Remain campaign in 2016, also lashed out at Michael Gove, who coled Vote Leave, labelling his former close friend a ‘foamflecked Faragist’.
In extracts from his autobiography, serialised in The Sunday Times, Mr Cameron tore into Mr Johnson saying he ‘didn’t believe’ in Brexit and had privately claimed there could be a ‘fresh renegotiation, followed by a second referendum’ – which he now says he opposes.
And Mr Cameron accused the leaders of the Leave campaign of declaring ‘open warfare’ on him – and claimed they were guilty of ‘lying’ to the public to win the 2016 referendum.
As well as the ministers he also attacked Dominic Cummings, the brains behind the Leave campaign and now a senior adviser to Mr Johnson in No.10, along with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, then of Ukip. He described them as part of a ‘cauldron of toxicity’ who had ‘something of the night about them’.
In fresh extracts from his controversial book, Mr Cameron claimed that the now-prime minister wanted to become the ‘darling of the party’ and ‘didn’t want to risk allowing someone else with a high profile – Michael Gove in particular – to win that crown’.
‘The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career,’ he added.
On Mr Gove, Mr Cameron said: ‘One quality shone through: disloyalty. Disloyalty to me and, later, disloyalty to Boris.’ And he said Mr Gove’s claim that the public were tired of experts made him ‘an ambassador for the truthtwisting age of populism’.
‘By the end, Boris and Michael seemed to me to be different people. Boris had backed something he didn’t believe in,’ he added. ‘Michael had backed something he did perhaps believe in, but in the process had broken with his friends ... while taking up positions that were completely against his political identity.
‘Both then behaved appallingly, attacking their own government, turning a blind eye to their side’s unpleasant actions and becoming ambassadors for the expert-trashing, truth-twisting age of populism.’
While Mr Cameron attacked Mr Johnson as ‘guilty of lying’ during the ‘open warfare’ of the referendum campaign, extracts from the
Leave campaign ‘lied to win vote’ ‘One quality shone through: disloyalty’
book show he reserves the most venom for Mr Gove.
And despite repeated denials from Mr Johnson regarding his support for a rerun of the Brexit vote, Mr Cameron stated that Johnson had privately said ‘there could always be a fresh renegotiation, followed by a second referendum’.
Last night allies of the British prime minister rejected the claim.
As well as turning on his successors and former friends in his longawaited tome, Mr Cameron also saved some criticism for his own bungling of the historic 2016 referendum fight.
Asked what he regretted, he claimed he could have publicly announced that he would veto Turkey’s accession to the EU at the height of the campaign after Leave backers made the entry of 76 million Turks a central plank of their messaging.
The Mail on Sunday has also discovered that Mr Cameron has assured some of the 21 former Tory MPs kicked out after voting against Johnson that he would help them try to keep their seats in the Commons, even if it means pounding the streets of their constituencies with them against a Tory candidate.
The revelation risks further souring relations between Mr Cameron and Mr Johnson.