David Cameron squirms as former PM confronted on 'truthfulness' of Brexit Remain campaign
DAVID CAMERON was challenged on the "truthfulness" of claims the Remain campaign made ahead of the Brexit referendum as the former Prime Minister conceded economic forecasts were not all correct.
Brexit: David Cameron confronted on the 'truth' of his campaign
David Cameron insisted the Remain side fought a "pretty accurate" campaign ahead of the Brexit referendum as he conceded many of the negative forecasts did not come to happen. Mr Cameron was challenged on the "truthfulness" of his campaign after he accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Leave side of "lying" in his new book. CNBC host Wilfred Frost asked the former Tory leader: "You say in your book that Boris Johnson ‘left the truth at home,’ with some of his campaignings.
"At another point in the book, you say outright Leave ‘was lying.’ Can the British people trust their Prime Minister?"
Mr Frost continued: "There’s lots of criticism about the Leave campaign that have poured over every day for the past three years.
"Was your campaign perfectly truthful?"
Mr Cameron conceded parts of the predictions the Remain campaign had made in the run-up to the European Union referendum turned out not to be true.
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The former Tory Prime Minister said: "We told the story as it was about Britain being better off and stronger and safer inside the EU but we lost. You have to accept that.
"I’m happy to say that while some of the forecast we made about the impact on the economy sadly have been borne out – we have not been growing as fast as we had been – some of the forecasts we made turned out not to be the case and the economy is stronger than some thought.
"But generally I think we fought a pretty accurate campaign."
Mr Cameron said that while some "untruths" had been said during the referendum campaign, Parliament remains charged with delivering on the results of the 2016 EJ vote.
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He continued: "Boris was an effective Mayor of London, he can be an effective Prime Minister - he needs to focus on getting this deal and he has my support in doing so.
"In the book, I try to reflect faithfully what I felt at the time or what I feel now when I look back.
"There were occasions when the Leave campaign - for instance, when they said you couldn’t veto Turkey’s membership of the EU, that simply wasn’t true.
"There were untruths but I don’t complain that somehow the referendum and the campaign was illegitimate."
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Mr Cameron continued: "It was backed in a manifesto I put forward, nine our of 10 members of Parliament voted for that referendum.
"I was able to send out a leaflet I poured over every word of to every household in the country to explain why I thought we were better remaining but, in the end, we lost and that needs to be reflected."
Prime Minister Johnson is expected to forward to Brussels an official draft of his withdrawal deal proposal on Wednesday after his speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Irish broadcaster RTE reported on Monday evening the British Government is set to propose the idea of custom clearance centres being set up five to ten miles either side of the Irish border.
The plan was however dismissed as a "non-starter" by Irish deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney.