David
Cameron
‘Johnson is
a liar who only backed Leave to help his career’ – David Cameron
Former PM
vents fury in his memoirs at his old colleagues over their stance on Brexit and
compares Leave campaign to racist Tory electioneering in 1964
Michael
Savage and Emma Graham-Harrison
Sun 15 Sep
2019 00.11 BSTLast modified on Sun 15 Sep 2019 01.14 BST
Boris
Johnson is a liar who only backed the Leave campaign to help his career and
Michael Gove was a “foam-flecked Faragist” whose “one quality” was disloyalty,
David Cameron writes in his memoirs.
The former
prime minister poured vituperation on both his former colleagues Priti Patel,
the current home secretary, and Dominic Cummings, the No 10 adviser, in
extracts from the book published on Sunday.
In what may
be Cameron’s most explosive allegation yet, he effectively accused Boris
Johnson of mounting a racist election campaign by focusing on Turkey and its
possible accession to the EU.
“It didn’t
take long to figure out Leave’s obsession,” he writes. “Why focus on a country
that wasn’t an EU member?
“The answer was that it was a Muslim country,
which piqued fears about Islamism, mass migration and the transformation of
communities. It was blatant.”
Then
Cameron echoes the explicitly racist Conservative campaign slogan used in
Smethwick in 1964: “They might as well have said: ‘If you want a Muslim for a
neighbour, vote “remain”.’”
In
Smethwick, Peter Griffiths had been elected as Conservative MP on the slogan
“If you want a n**** for a neighbour, vote Labour.”
Cameron
writes that Johnson’s claims of concerns about British sovereignty were
“secondary to another concern for Boris: what was the best outcome for him?”
Johnson
“risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political
career” and was open to a second referendum after a renegotiation, according to
a Sunday Times account of Cameron’s book, For The Record.
Cameron is
even more acerbic about Gove, who was once his close friend. Writing about
Gove’s decision to stand against Johnson for Tory leader, he says: “As for
Michael, one quality shone through: disloyalty. Disloyalty to me and, later,
disloyalty to Boris.”
Their
conduct during the EU referendum campaign amounted to “open warfare” and the
pair seemed to be different people by the end, Cameron writes. “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.”
He said
Patel’s attacks on his government’s immigration record “shocked me most” but he
did not want to fire her and create a “Brexit martyr”. Cummings was part of a
“cauldron of toxicity” with Nigel Farage, he says.
Reaction to
Cameron’s memoirs has seen the former PM attacked by Conservatives from all
wings of the party.
Brexiters
were enraged by his suggestion that a second referendum might be necessary and
that the Vote Leave campaign lied.
But Justine
Greening, Cameron’s former international development secretary who now sits as
an independent MP, said his decision to hold the EU referendum had proved to be
a “horrendous mistake” that turned a Tory obsession into a national issue.
Greening
said she had most concerns about how the Remain campaign was conducted, with
major failings in an “elitist” Remain campaign that had failed to reach out
enough sufficiently to young voters. “Patently, looking at the situation that
Britain finds itself in now, as well as the Tory party, it was a horrendous
mistake,” she said. “He took the one thing that divided the Tory party and
managed to put it centre stage.
“The
campaign was far too negative. It was quite staid, elitist, well-to-do. It
needed to reach out far more to younger voters and talk about their
opportunities, their futures. Instead they just played Ukip at their own game
and lost.”
In the book
Cameron says that he is “truly sorry” for the uncertainty and division that had
followed the 2016 referendum, and in his first interview he suggested a second
poll might be necessary. “I don’t think you can rule it out, because we’re
stuck,” he told the Times.
The
hardline Brexiter and former cabinet minister John Redwood said Cameron risked
deepening national divides by wading back into the Brexit debate, and that he
should be proud of having called the referendum, not ashamed of it.
“I don’t
accept that,” he said when asked about Cameron’s claim that Vote Leave lied. “I
don’t really think David Cameron reopening arguments in the referendum campaign
is helping achieve what he says he wants to achieve, which is the country
settling down again and accepting the decision it has made,” he told the BBC’s
Today programme.
Cameron
detailed his regrets about losing the referendum, but refused to apologise for
calling the poll, and said that renegotiating Britain’s EU membership and
holding a referendum was the “right approach”. However, the former prime
minister’s re-emergence has unleashed a fresh debate about his role in the
Brexit impasse and his motives for holding the referendum, including among many
who were once close to him.
Some Tories
defended Cameron. Conservative MEP and hardline Brexit supporter Daniel Hannan
tweeted: “Everyone agrees that David Cameron made a terrible blunder by holding
a referendum. Everyone except, you know, the general population.”
Sir Malcolm
Rifkind, the former defence secretary, said that an EU referendum had become
inevitable. He said Cameron’s major mistake had been promising to renegotiate
EU membership without any guarantees that he would secure major concessions. “I
don’t think it was a question of Cameron being right or wrong – I don’t think
he had much choice and was unlucky on the timing,” he said. “He has always been
a bit of a gambler. The gambling worked in the Scottish referendum and not in
this one.”
Cameron’s
revelation that he smoked cannabis at school and later with his wife, Samantha,
drew criticism over his perceived failures on Britain’s drugs policy.
Labour MP
David Lammy asked why he had not used his time in power to change laws that
penalised many young people for the same drug use Cameron wrote about in his
memoir.
“Listen
stoner why didn’t you use your privilege to do something about the working
class young people who have ended up banged up, jobless and with a criminal
record for smoking weed like you,” Lammy wrote on Twitter.
Johnson to
tell Juncker: ‘I won’t discuss Brexit extension beyond 31 October’
Prime
minister warns Brussels that he will reject any offer of prolonged membership
and renews his threat of no deal
Toby Helm
Sun 15 Sep
2019 07.37 BST
The
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, left, will meet Boris
Johnson for a working lunch. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/Will Oliver/EPA
Boris
Johnson will tell the outgoing European commission president, Jean-Claude
Juncker, on Monday that he will defy a new act of parliament and refuse to
discuss or accept any offer to extend the UK’s membership even if a Brexit deal
cannot be agreed, Downing Street said last night.
The prime
minister’s hardline message to Brussels that he will take the UK out of the EU
on 31 October, come what may, will enrage MPs from all parties who joined
forces last week to force through a new law mandating him to ask the EU to
prolong UK membership from the current deadline of 31 October until 31 January
next year, to avoid a no-deal outcome.
Over a
working lunch in Luxembourg – at which the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel
Barnier, the UK Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, and Johnson’s Brexit adviser
David Frost will also be present – Johnson will tell Juncker that the onus is
on the EU as well as the UK to redouble efforts to find a deal. However, if
those efforts fail he will be equally clear that he will not discuss or accept
any extension and will simply take the UK out of the EU with no agreement.
The prime
minister is expected to tell the commission president: “We’re leaving on 31
October, come what may – so let’s work hard to get a deal in the time
remaining. Some MPs have been peddling a myth that I am not serious about
getting a deal. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am striving for a
deal and I think we can achieve this. I will commit UK officials and my lead
negotiator to work flat out to come up with a new agreement without being
trapped into EU laws.”
He is
expected to add: “There should be no doubt about my determination to take us
out on 31 October. I will not ask for an extension. I absolutely believe that
our friends in Europe want an orderly exit, so now is the time for serious
talks.”
A No 10
source said there was no chance of the prime minister going cap in hand to the
EU summit in mid- October. “The PM will not negotiate a delay at the Brussels
council,” the source said, before suggesting there could be legal challenges.
“We expect
there to be a major court battle immediately after the 19th [of October] and
attempts to pass legislation revoking article 50, which the prime minister will
refuse to consider in any circumstances. Conservative MPs who want another
delay don’t understand that this would probably destroy the Conservative party
and put [Jeremy] Corbyn into No 10.”
Johnson
took aim last night at opposition parties and the 21 rebel Tories who voted for
the legislation to block no deal before being stripped of the party whip. In a
statement, he told voters: “Don’t be fooled by Corbyn and the ringleaders. On
the one hand, they say I don’t want a deal. On the other, they want to force me
to extend. Both are wrong. I am straining to get a deal, but I will also end
the uncertainty and take us out on 31 October.”
As the row
escalated, Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, said the prime minister
should think carefully before pursuing an illegal strategy. “If Boris Johnson
seeks to defy the law, then the consequences will be serious,” he said.
“Parliament has placed robust legal duties on Boris Johnson to secure an
extension and stop a no-deal Brexit at the end of October. If the prime
minister thinks parliament is going to stand by while he breaks the law, then
he has another think coming.”
Johnson’s
attempt to frame the Brexit argument as one between obstructive MPs in
parliament and the 52% of the British people who voted to leave the EU now
threatens to spiral into a confrontation involving the courts.
Downing
Street is, according to insiders, examining whether it can challenge in the
courts the interpretation of the new legislation (the so-called Benn act) to
block no deal and is looking for other ways to prevent Johnson having to seek
an extension.
On Saturday
David Davis, a former Brexit secretary, said he believed there might well be a
way “to effectively legally kill off the Benn bill”.
Separately
the supreme court will begin a joint hearing this week on whether the prime
minister’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks until mid-October was
lawful, after legal challenges in the English, Scottish and Northern Irish
courts.
While
English and Northern Irish judges have ruled that the suspension of parliament
was lawful, three Scottish appeal court judges concluded last week that the
decision was unlawful, as suspension was clearly an attempt to “stymie” the
House of Commons and prevent MPs from scrutinising the government over Brexit.
A final supreme court ruling is expected this week or early next week.
Joanna
Cherry QC, the SNP MP who jointly led the successful legal challenge in
Scotland, said she was “cautiously optimistic” that the supreme court would
follow the Scottish judges on the grounds that, while the courts cannot subject
the executive to political scrutiny, they have a duty to ensure that the body
charged with doing so – parliament – is able to perform that task.
Downing
Street said that David Frost was making good progress in talks with DUP
leaders, which could lead to a breakthrough on the issue of the Irish border.
While the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, has denied that her party is shifting its
position and would now be prepared to accept regulatory checks in the Irish Sea
and some regulatory divergence from Britain – assuming there is consent from
the provinces – Johnson’s officials are determined to show that they are
serious about avoiding a no deal.
Speaking at
a People’s Vote rally in Belfast on Saturday, the former Tory MP and attorney
general Dominic Grieve, one of the 21 Conservatives who lost the whip, said
Brexit would harm the Northern Irish economy whatever deal was reached and, in
turn, a border would endanger peace. “Whether the rules in Northern Ireland
follow those of the EU or those of the rest of the UK, one thing is certain –
there will be an economic border placed in the way of business in Northern
Ireland which does not exist today.”
In a sign
of divisions in cabinet over Brexit on Saturday, culture secretary Nicky Morgan
said that if there was a second referendum she would vote Remain. “My instincts
are that I was sorry that the Remain campaign didn’t win in 2016 and that
really I’m sorry that we’ve seen all the division and uncertainty over the last
three-and-a-half years,” she told the BBC.
She added
she voted to stay in the EU “for the same reasons that I felt very firmly back
in 2016 and I campaigned for Remain” - which she said were both economic and
geopolitical.
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