David Cameron: Boris Johnson backed Leave to 'help career' – BBC News, BBC News

        

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Boris Johnson did not believe in Brexit during the referendum campaign and backed Leave “because it would help his political career”, says David Cameron.

In an extract from his memoir published in the Sunday Times, the former PM also refers to cabinet minister Michael Gove as “a foam-flecked Faragist “.

The pair were” ambassadors for the expert-trashing, truth twisting age of populism, “Mr Cameron writes.

And he also accuses Mr Gove of being disloyal to himself and Mr Johnson.

Of his former colleague Mr Cameron writes, “one quality shone through: disloyalty. Disloyalty to me – and, later , disloyalty to Boris “.

The latest revelations comes after another extract published on Saturday accused the pair of behaving” appallingly “during the 2016 referendum campaign.

Mr Cameron called the 2016 poll after promising it in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto.

He campaigned for Remain, but lost the vote by 52% to 48%, and resigned as prime minister shortly after.

Mr Cameron writes that when deciding whether to back Leave or Remain in the campaign, Mr Johnson was concerned what the “best outcome” of would be for him.

“Whichever senior Tory politician took the lead on the Brexit side – so loaded with images of patriotism, independence and romance – would become the darling of the party, “he says.

“He didn’t want to risk allowing someone else with a high profile – Michael Gove in particular – to win that crown.”

The former Tory leader adds: “The conclusion I am left with is that he [Boris Johnson] risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career.”

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And of Mr Gove – a cabinet minister both now and then – he said: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

” Gove, the liberal-minded, carefully considered Conservative intellectual, had become a foam-flecked Faragist warning that the entire Turkish population was about to come to Britain. “

) During the run-up to the EU referendum, Mr Goveclaimed Turkey and four other countries could join the EU by 2020, increasing the UK’s population by up to 5. 23 million by 2030.

However, it was the behavior of his then employment minister and current Home Secretary Priti Patel that “shocked” him the most, he says.

“She used every announcement, interview and speech to hammer the government on immigration, even though she was part of that government, “he writes.

” I was stuck, though: unable to fire her, because that would make her a Brexit martyr. “

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The prime minister, Mr Gove and Ms Patel are yet to respond to the criticisms of them contained in Mr Cameron’s book.

In an interview with the Timespublished on Saturday, Mr Cameron said he was “hugely depressed” about the 2016 referendum result and he knew “some people will never forgive me”.

But he defended his decision to call the poll, arguing the issue of the EU “needed to be addressed”.

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Meanwhile, Mr Johnson, who has repeatedly refused to ask for a extension to the 31 October Brexit deadline, has toldthe Mail on Sundaythat if he cannot negotiate a new deal with the EU, the UK will break out of its “manacles” like cartoon character The Incredible Hulk.

“Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be – and that is the case for this country,” he said in an interview with the paper. “We will come out on 31 October and we will get it done. “

The prime minister is due to meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg this week as negotiations aimed at securing a deal continue.

                                                                                                                      

David Cameron as PM

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Mr Cameron became the Conservative Party leader in 2005. Five years later he was voted into Downing Street as the UK’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years – aged 43.

His six-year tenure – firstly in coalition with the Liberal Democrats and latterly with a majority government – was dominated by his desire to reduce the deficit, and the introduction of austerity measures with his Chancellor George Osborne.

But when he pledged in his party’s 2015 manifesto to hold a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, the focus shifted.

Mr Cameron backed Remain during the 2016 campaign and, on the morning of the result after discovering he had lost, he announced he would be stepping down, saying: “I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination. “

The former PM had remained silent until this weekend about both of his successors at the helm of the Tory Party – Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

But his allegedly fractious relationship with Mr Johnson has been well documented since their days together at Oxford University – most notably as members of the infamous Bullingdon Club.