DAVID Cameron only agreed to hold a “stupid” and “dangerous” referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union in 2016 because he thought he would not ultimately have to go through with it.
The astonishing claim has come from Donald Tusk in a new BBC TV documentary but denied strenuously by the former Conservative Prime Minister’s top press aide.
The European Council President explained Mr Cameron had told him that he did not expect to win the 2015 General Election outright and so believed Nick Clegg, his leadership partner in the 2010 Lib-Con coalition, would veto the Brexit vote plan as a price for another joint administration in a hung parliament.
But Mr Tusk, a former Prime Minister of Poland, told the first part of “Inside Europe: Ten Years Of Turmoil,” that when the second Lib-Con coalition failed to materialise, the UK leader was stuck with his "stupid referendum," which was designed to appease Eurosceptic backbenchers.
The documentary episode, due to be broadcast on Monday January 28, features interviews with a swathe of political figures from all sides of the Brexit spectrum, including George Osborne, the former Chancellor, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Cameron, who quit as PM after leading the failed Remain campaign, was the most notable figure not to take part in the documentary; producers explained he had declined because he had an exclusive deal to write his memoirs.
But in a frank interview, Mr Tusk described talking to the former Tory leader before the referendum, while he was trying to get concessions from EU leaders on migrant benefits in an attempt to head off Eurosceptic Tory MPs.
The Council President revealed that he had warned the former PM there was "no appetite for revolution", adding: "I asked David Cameron: 'Why did you decide on this referendum, this - it's so dangerous, so, even, stupid, you know?'
"He told me - and I was really amazed and even shocked - that the only reason was his own party.
“[He explained] he felt really safe because he thought at the same time that there's no risk of a referendum because, his coalition partner, the Liberals, would block this idea of a referendum.
"But then, surprisingly, he won and there was no coalition partner. So, paradoxically, David Cameron became the real victim of his own victory."
However, Sir Craig Oliver, the former director of communications at No 10, who also appears in the documentary, said Mr Tusk’s claims were “completely wrong”.
He tweeted: "David Cameron spent the whole of the 2015 election campaign making clear he would not lead any form of government that didn't have a referendum...The coalition as 'excuse to bail' is a myth."
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