The Prime Minister, pictured at church in her Maidenhead constituency yesterday, spent much of her first year in No10 dismantling key parts of her predecessor’s legacy
Theresa May buried the hatchet with David Cameron to ask for his advice before her crucial Brexit speech, it has been revealed.
The Prime Minister spent much of her first year in Downing Street dismantling key parts of her predecessor’s legacy.
But a former key aide to Mr Cameron has revealed that Mrs May sought out his opinion before setting out her vision of future relations with the EU.
The overture underlines the efforts the premier has been making to hold the Conservatives together as negotiations with Brussels reach a crunch point.
Mrs May used her long-awaited ‘road to Brexit’ speech on Friday to set out a blueprint for the UK to align with EU rules to secure free flowing trade.
She made clear that Britain must retain the scope to diverge from Brussels regulations in future – but admitted there would be costs if it does.
The speech seems to have succeeded in securing a fragile truce between Tory Remainer and Brexiteer factions – although the response from the EU has been less enthusiastic.
Conservative Remainers Nicky Morgan and Sarah Wollaston both signalled over the weekend that they were supportive of the PM’s stance – lessening the prospects of a potentially catastrophic rebellion over the issue of staying in a customs union.
Baroness Bertin, who was a close aide to Mr Cameron in No10, revealed his role as she appeared on the BBC’s Westminster Hour last night.
‘She did speak to him before this speech. So they’re on pretty good terms,’ Lady Bertin said.
‘I wasn’t privy to the conversation. But they were in contact over the speech, you know, a couple of days before.’
The peer said her former boss had ‘no plans’ to make his own intervention on Brexit and believes May is ‘making absolutely the right decision in the way that she’s going’.
Mr Cameron has gone through a fairly dramatic shift in his attitude to Brexit since losing the referendum in 2016 and being unceremoniously ejected from No10.
During the campaign he had overseen the notorious ‘Project Fear’ warnings about the dire consequences of deciding to leave the bloc.
Mr Cameron was caught on camera at the Davos summit admitting that Brexit had not been as bad as he thought
Mrs May used her long-awaited ‘road to Brexit’ speech on Friday to set out a blueprint for the UK to align with EU rules to secure free flowing trade
Mrs May’s speech at the Mansion House seems to have succeeded in securing a fragile truce between Tory Remainer and Brexiteer factions – although the response from the EU has been less enthusiastic
He suggested Brexit could lead to war and genocide in Europe, ‘put a bomb under the economy’, destroy funding for public services and lead to cuts in pensions.
But his views were somewhat softer when he was caught on camera at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos in January.
During a conversation with the billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, he admitted leaving the EU had not proved ‘a disaster’ and had ‘turned out less badly than we first thought’.
‘Yes, well I know. It’s frustrating. As I keep saying it’s a mistake not a disaster. It’s turned out less badly than we had thought but it’s still going to be difficult.’