David Cameron treated the Brexit referendum as “some sort of Eton game,” a Tory MP and former cabinet minister has admitted.
Former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith has accused the former PM of being “extremely cavalier” in the 2016 referendum.
Smith, who served as a government whip under Theresa May, has now said Cameron shouldn’t have caved in to Eurosceptics and instead found a solution to both sides.
“There should have been a proposition which outlined how both answers would be addressed,” he has told the BBC.
Talking on the Red Lines podcast, he said: “I joined the Conservative Party because of David Cameron, because he was dynamic… but looking back on it, it was unforgiveable that this fundamental question was put to the British people when you have a whole range of issues, not least the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.”
But added: “It was put to the British people as if it was some sort of Eton game.”
Following Britain’s vote to leave the EU, Cameron resigned as prime minister.
Speaking in 2016, he defended his decision to originally call the referendum.
“I believe and still believe that the fact that we hadn’t had a referendum on this issue for 40 years, despite the fact that the European Union was changing … was actually beginning to poison British politics – it was certainly poisoning politics in my own party.
“And I think, more broadly, people felt ‘well, we have been promised referendums and they haven’t been delivered’ and people were beginning to feel very frustrated about this issue.”
David Cameron served as the foreign secretary under Rishi Sunak, giving him a seat in the House of Lords.