Tory says ‘it would have been better if David Cameron had never lived’

Ian Payne on LBC Radio and David Cameron appears on the station in a previous interview. Photograph: LBC/PA. - Credit: Archant

A former Tory minister has said David Cameron has ‘a lot to answer for’ when it comes to calling the EU referendum.

David Mellor, who was pro-European during his time in office but voted for Brexit, appeared on LBC Radio to address remarks made by former speaker John Bercow.

The former national heritage secretary said that he did not agree with John Bercow on the suggestion that the former prime minister “thinks people like him are born to rule”, but Mellor said that he often woke up thinking “it would have been better if he had never lived”.

MORE: Bercow blasts ‘born to rule’ David Cameron’s referendum decision

The Conservative did not mince his words when he said the former Tory leader was “fat-headed” and “fatuous”.

He said: “I don’t agree with John Bercow about that in terms of his analysis but I do think that David Cameron has a lot to answer for.

“He was fat-headed, fatuous and shallow in going for the referendum.”

He continued: “Do you know when Robert Harris wrote his review of David Cameron’s auto-biography he ended up by quoting Winston Churchill, and what Winston Churchill said about Stanley Baldwin, who was the sort of do nothing know nothing prime minister in the 30s.

“And Churchill apparently said of Baldwin ‘I wish him no harm, but it would have better if he never lived’, and I wake up a lot of mornings thinking the same of David Cameron”.