Cameron's four Brexit regrets REVEALED - I should've BLOCKED Turkey's application to join
DAVID CAMERON'S memoirs will be published this week, in which the former prime minister revealed his four main regrets when it comes to Brexit.
By Kate Whitfield
PUBLISHED: 10:59, Mon, Sep 16, 2019 | UPDATED: 11:12, Mon, Sep 16, 2019
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David Cameron called the EU referendum in 2016 after it was promised in the Conservative Party manifesto. He campaigned for Remain, but lost the vote by 52 percent to 48 percent. He announced his resignation shortly afterwards, saying the county needed "strong, determined and committed leadership" to take it through the Brexit process.
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In his book, For The Record, Mr Cameron writes about the "many regrets" he has around the EU referendum.
He wrote: "When I look back at my career in politics, I do have regrets. Lots. And around the EU referendum I have many regrets.
"From the timing of the vote to the expectations I allowed to build about the renegotiation, there are many things I would do differently."
Read on for his regrets broken down into four main themes.
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David Cameron's four Brexit regrets: Resigning as PM (Image: Getty)
David Cameron's four Brexit regrets: The book will be released on September 19 (Image: PA)
1. The way the vote was conducted
Mr Cameron said he "did not fully anticipate the strength of feeling that would be unleashed both during the referendum and afterwards", referring to the start division the 52 to 48 result exposed.
He writes: "I am truly sorry to have seen the country I love so much suffer uncertainty and division in the years since then."
However, he defends his decision to have called the referendum.
He writes: "On the central question of whether it was right to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and give people the chance to have their say on it, my view remains that this was the right approach to take."
David Cameron's four Brexit regrets: The referendum polling card (Image: Getty)
2. The handling of Turkey's application to join EU
Mr Cameron writes of the controversy surrounding Turkey's application to join the EU, which was used as a Vote Leave campaign tool.
He writes: "Michael Gove said that EU immigration would mean up to 'five million extra people coming to Britain' by 2030, and pointed to the EU's stated objective of admitting Turkey."
He writes how this assertion "stretched the truth to its breaking point", adding: "In any case, like every other EU member, the UK had a veto over any country joining."
In a scathing attack, he writes: "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."
He said when it came to his handling on the topic, he chose the measured route.
He writes: " I was being urged to rule out Turkey ever becoming an EU member while I was prime minister, but I felt that was irresponsible.
"Paralysis had me in its grip. I was caught between being a campaigner and a prime minister, and chose the latter. It truly was asymmetric warfare."
David Cameron's four Brexit regrets: Mr Cameron writes of the controversy surrounding Turkey's application to join the EU (Image: Getty)
3. The Tory infighting
Mr Cameron spoke to the Sunday Times in an interview which ran alongside the book excerpts this weekend, where he delved deeper into the obliteration of the Conservative Party's integrity since 2016.
He said he was "nervous" throughout the campaign, and while he enjoyed elements of it, the vote resulted in a disastrous rift in his party.
He said: "I loved the explaining and arguing and that side of politics, persuasion, but then, as it went on, I just felt more and more bogged down.
"It turned into this terrible Tory psychodrama and I couldn't seem to get through.
"What Boris and Michael Gove were doing was more exciting than the issues I was trying to get across.
"I felt like I was in a sort of quagmire by the end."
David Cameron's four Brexit regrets: The front pages the day after the vote (Image: Getty)
4. The result
Mr Cameron writes: "I know there are those who will never forgive me for holding [the referendum], or for failing to deliver the outcome — Britain staying in a reformed EU — that I sought.
"I deeply regret the outcome and accept that my approach failed. The decisions I took contributed to that failure. I failed.
"But, in my defence, I would make the case, as I think all prime ministers have, that especially when you are in the top job, not doing something, or putting something off, is also a decision.
"And that is the thing that stands out for me when I look back over this time: decision-making."
He maintains that the vote was needed, writing: "I believe that, particularly with the Eurozone crisis, the organisation was changing before our very eyes, and our already precarious place in it was becoming harder to sustain.
"Renegotiating our position was my attempt to address that, and putting the outcome to a public vote was not just fair and not just overdue, but necessary and, I believe, ultimately inevitable."
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