News

David Cameron ‘let down' by Theresa May over Brexit, says ex-prime minister's aide

Mr Cameron became intensely frustrated at May's unwillingness to declare her intentions in the run-up to the EU referendum campaign, according to his former communications chief
Mr Cameron became intensely frustrated at May's unwillingness to declare her intentions in the run-up to the EU referendum campaign, according to his former communications chief Mr Cameron became intensely frustrated at May's unwillingness to declare her intentions in the run-up to the EU referendum campaign, according to his former communications chief

ALLIES of Theresa May have denied she "let down" David Cameron over the EU referendum after a senior No 10 figure laid bare the former prime minister's frustration over her prevarication on the issue.

Sir Craig Oliver, who was Mr Cameron's director of communications, said Mrs May failed to support Mr Cameron on 13 separate occasions before she did reluctantly "come off the fence" for Remain – but only after he gave her a dressing down over the telephone.

In his book, Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story Of Brexit, serialised in The Mail on Sunday, Sir Craig said that throughout the campaign, Mrs May had pursued a "submarine strategy of disappearing from view".

At one point, Sir Craig said that the Remain campaign director Will Straw had been so uncertain where her true loyalties lay, he had sent a text asking: "Are we sure May's not an agent for the other side!?"

Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin sought to play down the claims, insisting that Mrs May, who was then home secretary, had been "very much part" of the Remain campaign.

Asked on Sky News's Murnaghan programme if Mrs May had "let down" Mr Cameron, he said: "I don't think that is true at all. Theresa May during the referendum campaign made her position very clear.

"This is a book that has been written after the event. You have got to have certain spicy things in a book to sell it. I don't blame Craig for doing that. At the time, Theresa was very much part of the Remain campaign."

However, former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers, who campaigned for Leave, said she believed Mrs May had been listening to both sides.

"There were times that I did wonder," she told BBC One's Sunday Politics programme.

"Her major speech of the referendum campaign expressed real concerns about the possibility of Turkey joining the EU. It also said that the sky is not going to fall in if we leave. I think she was genuinely listening to both sides."

In the book, Sir Craig said Mrs May's unwillingness to declare her hand in the run-up to the campaign had caused intense frustration in No 10, but admitted her low-key approach served her well in the aftermath of the vote for Brexit.

"Amid the murder and betrayal of the campaign, one figure stayed very still at the centre of it all - Theresa May. Now she is the last one standing," he wrote.

He describes one conversation with Mr Cameron in January - six months before the referendum - after the then-prime minister had sought to sound out Mrs May about her views on the EU.

"It sounds like she refused to come off the fence. From her point of view it's a smart strategy, trying to demonstrate she is her own person, allowing her to have her cake and eat it, but it doesn't seem fair on DC, who has treated her well," he wrote.

There was further consternation within No 10 when during a Cabinet discussion on the issue, Mrs May did not join in, "playing her cards close to her chest".

"Her sphinx-like approach is becoming difficult, with the press questioning which way she will jump. The conversation turns around this being the biggest thing the PM has faced and him not even knowing if the home secretary is backing him," he wrote.

Matters finally came to a head when a "visibly wound up" Mr Cameron telephoned Mrs May during a train journey to Chippenham for a speech, and demanded she make her position clear.

"When he hangs up he seems to think he's made an impact. Later, the Home Secretary issues a statement saying she believes there's 'the basis for a deal here'," Sir Craig wrote.

"This is interpreted as the moment she climbed down off the fence. After all the concern around her, it all seems to have ended not with a bang, but a whimper."

Sir Craig also describes Boris Johnson's "flip-flopping" over the weekend in which he finally came out and put himself at the head of the Vote Leave campaign.

He said the day before the announcement, the former London mayor sent a text to Mr Cameron warning him that he would be campaigning for Leave, only to send a second message suggesting he could back Remain.

"I am struck by two things: Boris is genuinely in turmoil, flip-flopping within a matter of hours; and his cavalier approach," he wrote.

The following day Mr Cameron received a final text from Mr Johnson saying he would be backing Leave - just nine minutes before he publicly announced his intentions in a chaotic press conference outside his London home.

Sir Craig said that Mr Cameron later phoned him to say that Mr Johnson's final message had been clear he did not expect to win, believing Brexit would be "crushed".

"He says Boris is really a 'confused Inner', and their previous conversations confirmed that view to him," he wrote.

Former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith accused Sir Craig of trying to pin the blame for the failures of the Remain campaign on other people.

"Craig Oliver's is one of a growing number of foolish attempts by ex-government Remainers who lost to shift responsibility for their failure," he said.

"The grown-up thing for them to do, instead of carping, is to show some humility and get behind Theresa May as she seeks to get back control of migration with the EU as we leave."

Responding to Mr Duncan Smith's comments, Sir Craig said: "Iain appears to have got the wrong end of the stick. I have not made the specific allegations he claims.

"The book is a sincere and honest attempt to explain what went wrong - and I take full responsibility for the mistakes made by the campaign."