Former British Prime Minister David Cameron took a swipe at Boris Johnson, accusing the current prime minister of only joining the leave campaign during Brexit talks in order to “help his political career.”
In excerpts from his memoir For the Record published over the weekend, Cameron charges the leaders of the “Leave” campaign with declaring “open warfare” on him and claims they were guilty of “lying” to the public to win the referendum. He also accuses Johnson of backing Brexit not in the name of sovereignty, but because he wanted to “become the darling of the party.”
“The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career,” Cameron writes.
Cameron goes on to say that Johnson privately claimed that “there could always be a fresh renegotiation, followed by a second referendum,” which stands in stark contrast to his current opposition to a second vote. He also bashed Michael Gove, who served in his Cabinet but joined Johnson in campaigning to leave the European Union, saying the pair “seemed to me to be different people.”
His comments in the memoir mirror remarks made during an interview earlier in the week. Speaking with the Times of London, he said Johnson behaved “appallingly” during the Brexit campaign.
“I say in the book: Boris had never argued for leaving the EU, right?” he said, adding that he felt Johnson, along with then-MP Gove, were “trashing the government of which they were a part, effectively” throughout the “Leave” campaign.
