Cameron claims Johnson was ready to push Brexit only to further his own career
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David Cameron has accused Boris Johnson of not believing in Brexit but backing it anyway during the referendum campaign on Britain’s EU membership to advance his political career.
In an extract from his forthcoming memoir, published in the Sunday Times, the former British prime minister ripped into the political motives of Johnson and Michael Gove, another leading Brexit campaigner who is now a Cabinet minister.
“Why was I so concerned about the leanings of these two men? Boris was the most popular politician in the country. Michael was respected by MPs, was well liked in the Conservative Party and had good connections in the press. I knew how persuasive their popularity and intellectual heft could be. The polls backed me up: one suggested that if Boris stayed on board, then “remain” would lead by 8%, but if he went for “leave”, that lead would fall to 1%.”, the memoirs go.
The situation epitomised a problem at the heart of the UK’s relationship with the EU. Instead of pushing the boundaries to make the EU’s legal order more tolerable, our officials were determined to play strictly by the rules.
As to Johnson, Cameron added “The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career. One of the greatest miscalculations I made was that I thought moderate Eurosceptics would see, like me, that staying in and fighting, with new reforms agreed, with all the opt-outs secured, with all the advantages over trade and co-operation, was the right course. Perhaps that is one of the biggest pitfalls in politics: thinking that others, particularly those you know well, think like you. Often they don’t.”
