David Cameron has recently returned to the political limelight to publicise his forthcoming memoirs For The Record. The former Prime Minister has given several interviews in the past week, which are shedding more light on what really happened during the 2016 Brexit referendum. In an interview with ITV News on Monday, Mr Cameron apologised for his failed strategy to keep Britain in the EU.

The Tory grandee claimed there is ”not a day goes by” when he does not think about all the decisions he took in the run-up to the referendum, and that he is “deeply sorry about all that’s happened” since.

He said: ”I regret that we lost the campaign. I regret I let expectations about the negotiation run far too high.

“I regret some of the individual decisions we made in the campaign.

“I think perhaps there’s a case to say the timing could have been different.”

The former Prime Minister agreed the decision had haunted him, admitting: “You know, this is a huge decision for our country, and I think we’ve taken the wrong path; as I’ve said, it can be made to work…

“If you’re asking me: do I have regrets? Yes. Am I sorry about the state the country’s got into? Yes. Do I feel I have some responsibility for that? Yes.

“It was my referendum, my campaign, my decision to try and renegotiate. And I accept all of those things and people, including those watching this programme, will have to decide how much blame to put on me.”

In a newly-resurfaced report on his political blog, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s key advisor, revealed one of the most significant mistakes Mr Cameron made in the run-up to the referendum, which arguably led to his demise.

In 2015, Mr Cummings quoted a leaked document published by The Guardian, in which it was revealed that the former Prime Minister had purposely asked “modest demands” to secure an agreement with EU leaders to keep Britain in the bloc.

At the time, Mr Cameron had promised to win a host of concessions from Brussels that would convince Britons to remain in a newly-invigorated EU.

In a passage which was then seized on by Eurosceptics, the note said Mr Cameron had told his counterparts that his “firm aim was to keep the UK in the EU”, highlighting the country’s importance in areas including foreign policy and defence.

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Launching a scathing attack on the former Tory leader, Mr Cummings wrote: “Trivial substantive demands from Cameron.

“The Guardian leak confirms how little Cameron is asking for.

“Do people in No10 really think that deleting phrases like ‘ever closer union’ and having the EU formally say ‘OK we won’t force you to join the euro’ would persuade people that the EU has fundamentally changed?!

“Cameron’s approach so far has been to send Llewellyn and Liddington around asking foreign governments ‘what should we ask for that you can give us?’”

The political strategist added: “Unsurprisingly, this approach to negotiations is seen by other countries as consistent with Cameron’s lack of understanding of how EU business is done, as the Monnetist Foreign Office officials also ruefully acknowledge.

“There is no sign that the long-standing desire of Open Europe for a deal whereby Britain remains in the EU and Single Market but is outside all non-Single Market stuff is on the table or that No10 is pushing for it to be on the table.”

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Similarly to Theresa May and just like Mr Cummings predicted, the former Prime Minister’s renegotiations failed to win over Tory MPs, as he did not achieve all he set out to, or claimed he would in his Conservative Party manifesto.

Mere moments after announcing his deal and the date of the Brexit referendum, six senior Tories announced they would be campaigning for Vote Leave.

At the time Justice Secretary Michael Gove, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Employment Minister Priti Patel, Leader of the House Chris Grayling and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers all decided to support Brexit during the referendum campaign.

Mr Cameron said the changes in his deal included curbs on EU workers’ benefits, protections for non-euro nations and an opt-out from “ever closer union”, but Brexit campaigners and MPs promptly questioned whether the promise was worth the paper it was written on.

Richard Tice, co-founder of Leave.EU blasted: “The Prime Minister promised half a loaf, begged for a crust and came home with crumbs.”

Nigel Farage branded the deal “truly pathetic” and said it had not strengthened the argument for staying in the EU.

He tweeted: “This is a truly pathetic deal. Let’s Leave the EU, control our borders, run our own country and stop handing £55m every day to Brussels.”

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