The former Prime Minister embarked on a wretched trip around European capitals in the late autumn of 2015 as he tried to win over Europe’s top brass to grant the UK a special status within the EU in the hope of persuading Britons not to vote Leave in the upcoming Brexit referendum. Mr Cameron wanted the EU to grant the UK Parliament greater powers to block EU legislation in a “formal, legally binding and irreversible way”. The new controls would have allowed Britain to opt out of the EU’s founding principle of “ever closer union”.
He also wanted concessions on EU migrants and welfare benefits.
Mr Cameron’s 2015 election manifesto pledged to “insist that EU migrants who want to claim tax credits and child benefit must live here and contribute to our country for a minimum of four years”.
However, he had to make major compromises on this promise after the whirlwind tour and also failed in his demand to ban migrant workers from sending child benefit back to families in their home country.
Mr Cameron faced stiff opposition from Europe’s elite who stood together to defend the EU.
In a documentary which goes behind the scenes in the months leading up to the Brexit referendum it was revealed Mr Cameron was warned by both French Presidents Nicholas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande that his mission was doomed.
Speaking in the documentary, Mr Sarkozy says he told Mr Cameron not to attempt to strong-arm EU leaders on the migrant rules and integration issue.
France’s leader from 2007 to 2012 angrily cautioned Mr Cameron: “If you try to break our arm, you’ll get nothing.”
Meanwhile, Francois Hollande, who was French President from 2012 to 2017 and succeeded by current leader Emmanuel Macron, attempted to persuade Mr Cameron he did not have to hold the EU referendum at all, despite the vote being a commitment in the 2015 election.
Mr Hollande told the documentary how he attempted to talk David Cameron out of the vote during a visit to Chequers in 2015.
He said: “Nothing obliged him to hold the referendum when he did.
“This would not be the first time that a commitment made at an election had not been kept afterwards, but he wanted to show he could negotiate successfully with Europeans.”
The BBC documentary, titled Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil, features interviews with numerous influential figures from all sides of the Brexit debate.
Senior Brexiteers including Douglas Carswell, who defected from the Conservative Party to be Ukip’s first MP in 2014, and Tory MEP Daniel Hannan give their view on the months leading up to the referendum.
Meanwhile, top European politicians Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk explain Brexit from the EU’s perspective.
In a remarkable moment, Mr Tusk, president of the European Council, explains how he warned David Cameron his “stupid referendum” could spell the end of his political career, a prophecy which eventually came true.