David Cameron ‘threatened to f--- Boris up forever’ if he supported Brexit
David Cameron threatened to “f---” Boris Johnson up “forever” if he backed Leave in the 2016 referendum, the former prime minister has claimed.
In his memoirs, Mr Johnson said Lord Cameron also promised him a senior job in Cabinet to back Remain.
But he claimed he threatened him with career ruin if he supported Brexit.
The former premier also alleged that Philip Hammond, the former Chancellor, rang him on the night of Theresa May’s disastrous election to suggest deposing her.
The allegations came in Mr Johnson’s book Unleashed, which details the run-up to the referendum on leaving the European Union.
During a tennis match, which Lord Cameron won, he is said to have urged him: “Come on – go with the campaign to stay in and I’ll make sure you get a top-five job in the Cabinet.”
Mr Johnson said he was also threatened if he decided to join the Leave side.
“The PM had rung me one evening at City Hall, urging me to make up my mind,” he said.
“I was torn, I said. I wanted to back him, but over the years I had written hundreds if not thousands of articles attacking the undemocratic features of the EU. I felt I had to be consistent.
“‘This isn’t about articles!’ he spluttered. ‘It’s about… the future of the country!’
“Well, I said, we were agreed on that but I was still thinking of voting Leave.
“‘If you do that,’ he said – and these were his exact words – ‘I will f--- you up forever.’”
He added: “I had to admit that the threat sounded serious. Did I want to be f---ed up? Forever? By a prime minister equipped with all the f---ing-up tools available to a modern government, and thousands of f---er-uppers just waiting to do his bidding?
“It looked as though we were going to lose, and once we lost the failed and defeated Leavers would of course be crushed like bugs: dismissed as Powellite cranks and misfits who had been rejected by the people.”
Mr Johnson also said that Lord Hammond proposed trying to oust Mrs May after the disaster of the 2017 election when the Tories lost their overall majority.
“In the early hours of the morning I got a message from Phil Hammond, the Chancellor – dry as dust but with an excellent political brain – and we talked,” he wrote.
“He thought it was all very unfortunate but Theresa’s goose was cooked. She would have to go sooner or later, and it might as well be now.
“What he was proposing was a Hammond-Johnson partnership, by which I would take the wheel at No10 and he continued to be my economic co-pilot. I thought about it briefly, as dawn started to break, and then said no.”
A spokesman for Lord Cameron declined to comment.
Lord Hammond was contacted for comment.