Dominic Cummings has admitted that it is “perfectly reasonable” to think that Brexit might have been a mistake.
The architect of the Vote Leave campaign said that while he thinks Brexit was a good idea, anybody who expresses certainty over this "has a screw loose".
In a bombshell interview with the BBC, Boris Johnson ’s former top aide said “no-one on earth” knows whether leaving the EU was a good idea for Britain.
"It's perfectly reasonable to say Brexit was a mistake and... history will prove that of course it’s reasonable for some people to think that," he said.
"But questions like is Brexit a good idea? No-one on earth knows if that’s, what the answer to that is.”
Mr Cummings admitted that the notorious referendum claim that the U.K. sent £350m a week to the EU, painted on the side of Boris Johnson’s Vote Leave campaign bus, was chosen to “drive the Remain campaign crazy”.
Asked whether he was EU withdrawal was the right thing for Britain, he replied: “I think anyone who says they’re sure about questions like that has got a screw loose, whether you’re on the Remain side or our side.
“In Vote Leave we didn’t think that we’re definitely right and Remainers are all idiots or traitors... I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say Brexit was a mistake and history will prove that”.
He denied stirring up division with “provocative” tactics - such as the prorogation of Parliament which led to the Government’s defeat at the Supreme Court - to help drive Brexit through.
Mr Cummings, who went on to help Mr Johnson secure an 80-seat majority, instead blamed any divisions on those who didn’t want to accept the result of the 2016 referendum.
He claimed that it would not have been possible to implement the decision to quit the EU by an inclusive “kumbaya” approach.
The Government will today set out its proposals for post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland amid an ongoing row with Brussels that has threatened to descend into a trade war.
Mr Cummings also revealed he plotted to oust Mr Johnson within days of the Conservatives' landslide 2019 election victory.
The former top aide claimed that by January 2020 - even before Covid struck - the Prime Minister "did not have a plan" for governing the country.
In an explosive remarks, he accused the PM's then fiancee Carrie Symonds of trying to influence Government appointments.
But Mr Cummings, who eventually quit No 10 last year following an internal power struggle, denied that his attacks on Mr Johnson were motivated by revenge.
In his first major TV interview, the ex-advisor accused the PM of trying to avoid a second lockdown last year by saying that it would only kill the over-80s.
He accused his former boss of putting "his own political interests ahead of people's lives".
And he confirmed a Mirror exclusive last month about how the PM had to be stopped from going to see the Queen at the start of the pandemic.
