David Cameron: I was right to hold Brexit referendum

David Cameron has defended his decision to call the EU referendum after Britain formally fired the starting gun on its divorce from the European Union.

The former Prime Minister said he had to fulfil the pledge, despite himself campaigning for the UK to remain.

Speaking out after the Brexit negotiations began, he stood by his decision to hold the vote.

Mr Cameron said he had to keep his promise, having enshrined the commitment to hold a referendum in the Conservative manifesto ahead of the 2015 general election.

Within hours of the result on June 23 last year, in which 17.4 million people vote Leave in a 52 per cent to 48 per cent victory for Brexit campaigners, Mr Cameron resigned.

Explaining his decision on Wednesday, he told of how the issue that a referendum had been promised but not held was “poisoning British politics.”

He told news agency AFP “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.”

The former Conservative Prime Minister, speaking during a visit to Ukraine, did concede that things had not gone to plan.

He said: “We held the referendum and, of course, the result is not the result that I sought.

“But it was a decisive result and that’s why today Theresa May quite rightly is taking the next step to ensuring the people’s will is followed through.”

Cameron’s successor Mrs May on Wednesday notified the European Council president Donald Tusk that the UK was triggering article 50.

The hand-delivered letter marked the start of the two-year countdown to Britain’s exit from the EU.