David Cameron is wrong. A Brexit referendum was not inevitable and the blame lies with him

He could have shown brave leadership on Europe. Instead, he allowed the Eurosceptic tail to wag the dog, and we are where we are today, writes Andrew Grice

Cameron joined the Brussels-bashing that began in the Thatcher era; he should not have been surprised it was hard to make the case for EU membership in the referendum (Getty)

What a pity that David Cameron didn’t quietly nudge the Queen to intervene in the EU referendum, as he did before the one on Scottish independence two years earlier.

Could the “raising of an eyebrow… even a quarter of an inch”, have tipped the Brexit vote too? Perhaps, if the Queen had repeated her 2014 hope that “people will think very carefully about the future”.

The pro-Brexit press claims the Queen as one of their own. It would, wouldn’t it? Buckingham Palace disputed a headline that she backed Brexit. We don’t know her views. We do know her prime minister believed strongly it was in the national interest to remain in the EU, not least for economic reasons. True, she is not the Queen of Europe. But with no deal still in the frame, we know now Brexit could be the catalyst for the breakup of the UK, with the possible loss of Northern Ireland as well as Scotland. We know the Queen’s view about that.