Brexit: Inside story of a very British coup

Boris Johnson was perched on a sofa in the basement of his home in Islington, north London, with no socks on.

An American tourist near the Houses of Parliament in London has some advice for the British public in the wake of the historic vote to leave the European Union.

Boris Johnson was perched on a sofa in the basement of his home in Islington, north London, with no socks on, when he began to realise that he might be the next prime minister.

It was 8.15am on Friday and the former mayor of London was working on a speech calling for Tory unity when David Cameron walked to the podium outside 10 Downing Street and announced, voice breaking with emotion, that he was resigning after six years in office and 414 days after he won a historic majority.

Johnson had no idea his fellow Old Etonian and sparring partner for two decades was about to quit. Those present say Johnson was “pretty emotional” at what had transpired in the hours before when his band of Brexiteer underdogs had secured the most dramatic referendum victory in British history.

“There was no sign of euphoria at all,” says one source. “He was drained by the magnitude of what had happened. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. He felt ­responsible.”

As Cameron retreated behind the famous black door, hand in hand with his visibly distressed wife Samantha, Johnson watched and said: “Oh God. Poor Dave. Jesus.” Just a few hours earlier Johnson had expected to lose the referendum and was reconciled to taking a middle-ranking job in Cameron’s next cabinet, from where he hoped to eventually stake a claim for the leadership. Suddenly he had another speech to write.

Boris might have been less blindsided if he had known about a meeting the day before, where Cameron gathered his closest aides in his study to discuss what he would do if he lost the referendum.

One, Craig Oliver expressed concern that Cameron would face endless attempts to undermine his authority and told him: “I want to see you go with dignity on your own terms at a time of your own choosing.”

The team came to unanimous agreement that he should go. Cameron gave every impression of already having come to that conclusion himself.

Some dispute reports that Cameron robustly expressed the view: “Why should I do all the hard shit only to hand over to someone else.”

But another aide says: “He feels very strongly that he really believed everything he was saying during the campaign. It wasn’t some made-up bollocks. For him to be the one overseeing an outcome he didn’t believe in would have been wrong. Better to offer a steadying influence and then hand over to people who dig that shit.”

On Thursday evening the prime minister gathered 25 No 10 staff for a buffet dinner of moussaka and bottled beer in what those unaware of Cameron’s intentions jokingly described as “the last supper”.

Cameron joked that he had “got my two speeches ready” — acknowledging that he might have to concede defeat — but most aides were bullish. His pollster, Andrew Cooper, had published a Populus poll showing “remain” 10 points ahead. Privately, Cooper thought the margin might be 20 points. Taunting text messages emanating from Downing Street were sent to Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the rival campaign Vote Leave.

As they settled in to watch the results witnesses say that, by his standards, Cameron was very nervous but still one of the calmest people in the room. As the results came in, there was no panic, but a strange and dawning realisation that everything was going wrong.

For Michael Gove, the other big player in the referendum psychodrama, the realisation was more abrupt, because the justice secretary slept through the key results, oblivious of the maelstrom he was to be thrust into. Gove spent Thursday evening hosting a dinner with his wife, newspaper columnist Sarah Vine, at their home in northwest London.

Guests included Cameron’s former aide Steve Hilton, who had declared for Brexit. They dined on “an amazing piece of beef” cooked by another guest, the chef Henry Dimbleby, whose father David was hosting the BBC’s referendum coverage.

Gove made clear he did not think the Brexiteers would win and “slid off to bed” before any results were declared. His special adviser Henry Cook was at Vote Leave headquarters and watched as the results came in, first in Newcastle and Sunderland — where the Brexiteers outperformed expectations — and then in London where the “remain” campaign underperformed theirs. At 4.45am, Cook called Gove and woke him. “I’m terribly sorry to trouble you, Michael, but I’ve got some good news. We won!”

A bleary Gove replied: “Oh right. Wow. Well that’s a great result.”

Victory was a more creeping sensation for Johnson. His team dined more prosaically on “bacon sarnies” and red wine and watched the results in a TV room at the back of the house. Johnson had spent some time the day before penning only a concession speech, focusing on the need for the party to “work together”.

Johnson reclined on the sofa, “snuggled up” with his QC wife, Marina Wheeler while he received regular updates. For the most part his position was “reclining” but at about 1.30am a pleasing result caused Johnson to “leap out of his seat” and yell “Yes!” He narrowed his eyes and said: “You know, we might do this.”

When the Newcastle result came in, Vote Leave had 49 per cent. The computer had predicted 43 per cent.

About 4am Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings was in his office when he heard a rumble through the wall. “Dom, Dom, Dom, Dom, Dom!” The digital experts had pronounced that Vote Leave could not lose. Cummings punched the air and hit the ceiling.

As the magnitude of what was occurring seized Johnson he became drained. The tension was becoming too much and an aide sent Johnson to bed. By 5am it was clear that Brexit had won and Johnson began to work on a new speech urging Cameron to stay. Little did he know he was going to need a third piece of oratory.

In Downing Street, the prime minister decided at 4am that the game was up. “This isn’t going our way,” Cameron told aides. The group discussed his plans to resign.

Upstairs, George Osborne took the news with “a zen calm” according to one Downing Street staffer. When told Cameron had resolved to quit, the chancellor said: “That’s it, then.”

“He was smiling, saying the British people have decided and already thinking about what to do next for the country.”

At some time in the small hours, Osborne texted Johnson to congratulate him. Bets hedged.

At the Britain Stronger in Europe party in the Royal Festival Hall, the mood, once upbeat, was now that of a wake, with campaign staff in tears. Matt Forde, a comedian who once worked for the Labour Party, was among guests. “It was like going to watch your team win the Premier League and lift the trophy and then you hear that the trophy isn’t coming and you haven’t won it and it turns out you have been relegated as well.”

At 7am Cameron called Gove to concede defeat. It was warm and cordial, but one source said it had a finality about it that marked a footnote to a fading political friendship. In a sign of how trust had waned between the two men during the fractious campaign, Cameron did not tell Gove that he planned to resign. A Downing Street source says: “It was a short call.”

Watching her husband’s career come to such an abrupt conclusion was too much for Samantha Cameron. She “was upset” but “wanted to do the right thing and stand by her man”.

One friend says: “Sam has been so stressed by it all that she has taken up smoking. She doesn’t really smoke but the stress has driven her to cigarettes.”

She held her nerve as her husband told the television cameras that he was quitting. But as she walked back into Downing Street there were tears. About 25 staff gathered in Cameron’s private office where he embraced many of them.

One says: “I can’t stop weeping — and I’m not a weeper. Every time I see his face on the television, I lose it. I’ve grown up with the man. I’ve put 10 years of my life into this. He’s got such a good temperament. He’s always calm-headed. I just feel that it’s such a loss for our country.”

Johnson did not immediately contact Cameron, worrying that a message of condolence would appear fake, but they did exchange texts later in the day.

By now Boris was the centre of attention. A sign of the pressures to come came as Johnson emerged from his home to travel to the Vote Leave offices. Protesters banged on the roof of his car, shouting “scum” and “Boris, you’re a c...”.

As Westminster woke to a political earthquake and the markets began to tank, there was anger among campaigners for Britain Stronger in Europe that their warnings about economic turmoil had been so casually dismissed by Johnson.

One No 10 official says, “They told us it was Project Fear but you can see already that it is Project Reality. And all we got in the campaign was people saying the governor of the Bank of England and the Treasury were peddling false information. That was pretty shocking.”

Samantha Cameron is daggers drawn with Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, who is godmother to the Camerons’ daughter Florence. A Cameron family friend says: “Sam’s a very open person and sometimes naively trusting in a friendship. I think she wanted to remain friends with Sarah but perhaps it has gone too far now.”

Efforts are being made to keep a lid on the raw feelings in the parliamentary party. A Cameron aide says: “David doesn’t want any slagging-off of Boris. He doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do. If it was down to me I’d be going for it. He won’t back anyone for the leadership or try to stop anyone.”

Not everyone in Team Dave is so restrained. “There is a special place in hell reserved for Boris,” says one. “He and Gove have basically engineered a right-wing coup to oust a prime minister.”

There are recriminations within the “remain” campaign, where Tories worked alongside Labour and Liberal Democrat officials, about what went wrong. All three sides admit that they had trouble countering the Vote Leave narrative on immigration.

Some in Vote Leave think it was wrong to target Johnson. “Going for Boris personally was a big mistake. They didn’t listen to the Godfather, ‘Never hate your enemies; it clouds your judgment’.”

Another “remain” source said the Tories stuck too rigidly to the “scares plus economy” campaign model of their general election and Scottish referendum victories — but crucially without the support of much of the press.

One non-Tory on the campaign says: “It was a bit like ‘why don’t you lot watch and learn how the professionals do it.’ But every time they made a claim it would be thrown back in their face by the papers.”

The Tories privately bemoan Labour’s failure to turn out its voters. For Jeremy Corbyn, there is contempt, even in Labour ranks. Corbyn went to bed at 11pm on Thursday. His hapless campaign was capped early on Friday when members of the party’s “remain” campaign could not reach him at 6am to tell him what had happened. “The markets were in turmoil and people were like ‘where the f. k is the Leader of the Opposition?’ ” one insider says. “‘He is in bed’. ‘Can someone get him up?’. ‘We are not sure how to do that’.”

For the leadership election ahead, the most significant factor may be how much blame Johnson and Gove receive from angry “remain” MPs. A senior member of Britain Stronger in Europe accuses them of pandering to the basest instincts of the electorate. “They stirred a hornet’s nest in a way that was highly irresponsible.”

Another campaign chief adds: “Boris Johnson is a charlatan. Michael Gove launched an all-out assault on the Enlightenment in the name of atavistic nationalism.”

But if Johnson’s decision to back Brexit has hurt him with some one-nation pro-Europeans, his team insists he has made gains in parliamentary support throughout the campaign. “He’s been getting text messages from colleagues pledging support,” says one friend, “including one ‘remain’ cabinet minister. The numbers are building again.”

Despite coming under pressure from friends such as Nick Boles to run, Gove has resolved to back Johnson’s leadership bid.

“Michael likes Boris a lot more having worked closely with him,” says a Vote Leave source. “They met earlier this week and agreed that win or lose they would do things together.”

The “dream team” is expected to get the support of Brexit ministers such as Chris Grayling, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab as well as former leader Iain Duncan Smith. Patel said: “We have all been such a great team. We’ve all been through a hell of a lot together because we’ve been raging against a machine which has been trying to destroy us. We’ve watched each other’s backs.”

The game is now afoot to coax some of Osborne’s allies — and even the chancellor himself — into their camp.

Johnson spent the weekend playing cricket at Althorp, home of Lord Spencer, the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales. He gathered his closest allies at his country cottage in Thame, Oxfordshire, to discuss hiring office space and plans to “beef up” his Commons campaign team to include a wider range of lieutenants from different parliamentary intakes.

Shortly before he became Prime Minister, Cameron was asked by a friend whether he felt up to the job. With the insouciance that became his trademark, he replied: “How hard can it be?”

Cameron knows the answer to that now. And having watched his old rival’s fall, so too does Boris Johnson.

The Sunday Times