Boris Johnson ‘thought Brexit would lose, but wanted to be romantic, patriotic hero’, says David Cameron

Ex-PM says Johnson sent him a text saying 'Brexit will be crushed like a toad under the harrow'

Boris Johnson wanted to be the “romantic, patriotic” hero of Brexit despite believing the Leave campaign would be “crushed like a toad under the harrow”, David Cameron has said.

In an outspoken attack on his old colleague, the former prime minister suggested Mr Johnson had made a cynical decision to back Brexit in order to advance his own career.

Speaking to ITV News ahead of the publication of his long-awaited memoir, Mr Cameron said he was still haunted by the referendum result and he was “deeply sorry” for the chaos that has transpired.

Mr Cameron also condemned his successor’s decision to suspend parliament, and said it was a “disastrous” move to sack 21 senior Tory MPs for rebelling against the government.

Despite being an outspoken Brexiteer, Mr Johnson famously wrote two newspaper columns arguing for and against Brexit, as he wrestled with the decision over which side to support.

“I spoke to him at length about it and I said, ‘Boris you’ve never been in favour of leaving the EU, so why now there’s a better deal on offer, are you in favour of leaving now?’” Mr Cameron said.

Asked about his successor’s motives, Mr Cameron said: “My conclusion is: he thought that the Brexit vote would be lost but he didn’t want to give up the chance of being on the romantic, patriotic nationalistic side of Brexit.

“Minutes before he went out to explain why he was going to be on the side of Brexit, he sent me a text saying, ‘Brexit will be crushed like a toad under the harrow.’ But I can only conclude that – he’d never argued for it before – he thought it was going to lose and that’s why he made the choice.”

Pressed on whether it was a cynical decision, rather than a genuine view, Mr Cameron said: “He’d never argued for it before and so why argue for it when there’s a better deal on offer?

“And as I put to him, ‘There will be another treaty; another renegotiation. You might well be the prime minister at the time when that comes about and you can get an even better deal for Britain.’”

The latest comments come after the ex-Tory leader revealed that Mr Johnson asked if Michael Gove was “a bit cracked” when he famously betrayed Mr Johnson and announced his own leadership bid.

The shock move forced Mr Johnson to withdraw from the contest, which was later won by Theresa May.

In his first major TV interview, Mr Cameron was visibly emotional when asked if the decision to call the referendum haunted him.

The former prime minister appeared close to tears, saying: “Yeah, of course. You know, this is a huge decision for our country and I think we’ve taken the wrong path. As I’ve said, it can be made to work.

“If you’re asking me, do I have regrets? Yes. Am I sorry about the state the country’s got into? Yes.

“Do I feel I have some responsibility for that? Yes. It was my referendum, my campaign, my decision to try to renegotiate.

“And I accept all of those things and people, including those watching this programme, will have to decide how much blame to put on me.”

Asked if he would apologise, Mr Cameron said: “I’m deeply sorry about all that’s happened.

“There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about all the decisions I made and all that has followed.

“But when I go back to that decision, that Britain’s position needed to be sorted and we needed a renegotiation and a referendum, I believed then that was the right approach.”

Asked if he had any regrets, Mr Cameron said: “I have huge regrets. I regret that we lost the campaign. I regret I let expectations about the negotiation run far too high.

“I regret some of the individual decisions we made in the campaign. I think perhaps there’s a case to say the timing could have been different.”

In extracts – published over the weekend – from For the Record, Mr Cameron described Mr Gove as a “foam-flecked Faragist”.

He said Mr Johnson wanted to become the “darling” of the Tory party and “didn’t want to risk allowing someone else with a high profile – Michael Gove in particular – to win that crown”.