Former prime minister says issue of EU membership ‘had been poisoning British politics for years’ but says cooperation on security should continue

As Britain formally fired the starting gun on its exit from the European Union, David Cameron has defended his decision to call the referendum that ended in the vote to leave.

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“I thought it right to hold the referendum because this issue had been poisoning British politics for years. The referendum had been promised and not held,” the former British prime minister said during a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday, in quotes reported by Agence France-Presse.

Having enshrined the commitment to hold a referendum in the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 general election, Cameron said he had to fulfil the pledge – despite campaigning himself for the UK to vote remain: “I made a promise to hold a referendum. I think it was the right thing to do.”



Within hours of the result – in which 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU, a 52%-48% victory for Brexit campaigners – Cameron announced his resignation.

Speaking on Wednesday, he conceded that things had not gone to plan: “We held the referendum and, of course, the result is not the result that I sought.

“But it was a decisive result and that’s why today Theresa May quite rightly is taking the next step to ensuring the people’s will is followed through.”

May, Cameron’s successor at No 10, on Wednesday notified European council president Donald Tusk via a letter that the UK was triggering article 50, kickstarting the two-year countdown to the country’s exit from the EU.

The letter has sparked consternation for some, with senior figures in Brussels and Westminster accusing the prime minister of “a blatant threat” over the letter’s juxtaposing mentions of trade and security.

“If, however, we leave the European Union without an agreement, the default position is that we would have to trade on World Trade Organisation terms. In security terms, a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened,” May wrote.

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Some Brexit supporters have leapt on the implied threat, with the Sun front page on Wednesday trumpeting: “Your money or your lives: trade with us and we’ll help fight terror.” The Daily Mail accused the EU of “wailing about PM’s ‘blackmail’”.

But work and pensions secretary Damian Green called the row a “misunderstanding”, saying the two issues had been grouped together in the letter because they were “all bound up in our membership of the European Union”.

Green told BBC2’s Newsnight: “It’s not a threat, I think that’s the misunderstanding. It’s absolutely not a threat.”

Speaking in Kiev, Cameron said cooperation on security issues remained key: “I hope we will be out of the European Union, but we will take part in security cooperation and other forms of cooperation to recognise that while we are leaving the European Union, we are not leaving Europe, we are not giving up on European values.”

But the divorce would not be an emotional trauma, the ex-prime minister insisted: “Britain was always [a] rather reluctant and uncertain member of the EU. We were in the EU for reasons of utility rather than emotion. We were there for the trade, we were there for the cooperation and I thought it right to stay because I wanted more trade and more cooperation.

“But nonetheless the other side … won a vote and we need to go ahead with Brexit.”