Former British prime minister David Cameron on Wednesday defended his decision to call the referendum on whether the UK should stay or leave the EU, as London formally launched the process to quit the bloc.
“I thought it right to hold the referendum because this issue had been poisoning British politics for years. The referendum had been promised and not held,” Cameron said during a visit to Ukraine.
“I made a promise to hold a referendum, I think it was the right thing to do,” said the Conservative former prime minister, who called the referendum.
On June 23 last year, 17.4 million Britons voted to end their 43-year-old EU membership.
“We held the referendum and, of course, the result is not the result that I sought,” said Cameron, who led the campaign to stay in and announced his resignation a day after the referendum.
“But it was a decisive result and that’s why today [British Prime Minister] Theresa May quite rightly is taking the next step to ensuring the people’s will is followed through,” he added.
On Wednesday, May launched the process to leave the EU, formally notifying the bloc via a letter to EU President Donald Tusk.
“I hope we will be out of the European Union, but we will take part in security cooperation and other forms of cooperation to recognize that while we are leaving the European Union, we are not leaving Europe, we are not giving up on European values,” Cameron said.
“Britain was always [a] rather reluctant and uncertain member of the EU,” he said.
“We were in the EU for reasons of utility rather than emotion. We were there for the trade, we were there for the cooperation and I thought it right to stay because I wanted more trade and more cooperation,” he said.
“But nonetheless the other side... won a vote and we need to go ahead with Brexit,” Cameron said.
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