David Cameron accidentally swore on live television when he claimed he “s*** at the TV” upon seeing the infamous Vote Leave bus during the 2016 referendum.
The former prime minister made the comments while appearing alongside his wife Samantha on ITV’s This Morning on Thursday, where he admitted “Brexit has cost us our best friends”.
Hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were left struggling to contain themselves after asking Mr Cameron to cast his mind back to the unveiling of Boris Johnson’s red bus.
The vehicle, paraded across the country by the Vote Leave campaign, led to the now disputed claims that Britain sends £350 million a week to the European Union.
Asked for his reaction upon seeing it for the first time, Mr Cameron said, “I s*** at the TV”, quickly adding: “I shouted at the television. It was incredibly frustrating.”
"You've never said that on Newsnight," replied Mr Schofield.
David Cameron - a career in pictures
In a wide-ranging interview on the day his memoir For The Record hits the shelves, Mr Cameron apologised for Brexit and accepted a portion of the blame “for holding the referendum and losing the referendum”.
“My plan was to try to keep Britain inside a reformed EU and I failed in that,” he said.
“I am deeply sorry about what has happened since and the hiatus since and I hope we can get out of it soon.”
But he added “every political party promised a referendum at some stage” in the years prior to the landmark 2016 contest, and said “we would have Brexited by now” had MPs supported Theresa May’s deal.
When asked about his resignation on the morning of the referendum result, he remembered feeling he would “have no credibility left” if he continued as PM but “didn’t expect” to depart so quickly.
“I hated leaving the job, a job that I loved,” he added.
Mrs Cameron also recounted watching history unfold as Brexit dawned upon the UK. “Inevitably he has worried a huge amount since the referendum, but I think you go into politics and you have to expect that you have to take responsibility for what happens,” she said.
“You are always making history and you have to be tough enough to deal with that.”
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His book is already making waves, addressing alongside Brexit his relationship with Boris Johnson, feuds with Michael Gove, his resignation and family tragedy.
On Wednesday Mr Cameron made his first public remarks after The Guardian sparked outcry by calling his raw account of family heartbreak when son Ivan died aged six “privileged pain”.
He told LBC yesterday that the comments “passed him by” and he was happy to “leave it” at the newspaper’s apology, adding: “Look, there is no privilege in holding your eldest born child in your arms as their life drains away. Death knows no privilege."
And he takes aim at prime minister Mr Johnson in a BBC documentary to air tonight, accusing him of: “put[ting] what was good for his political career ahead of what he actually thought was right for the country."
