David Cameron says he doesn’t regret holding a referendum on Brexit

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has said he doesn't regret holding a referendum, calling it "the right thing to do" at the time.

In an interview with CNN, Cameron said:

I dont regret holding a referendum, I think it was the right thing to do.

I dont think you can belong to these organisations and see their powers grow, treaty after treaty, power after power going from Westminster to Brussels, never asking the people if they are happy being governed in that way – but I havent changed my mind about the result of the referendum, I wish the vote had gone another way.

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He added that he thought Britain had "taken the wrong course" though he accepted the result.

"I wish my successor well in the work she is doing, I know as being Prime Minister it is a hard-enough job, without your predecessor giving you a running commentary and thats why I havent been giving interviews and the rest of it," Cameron said of Theresa May's work so far.

Earlier in the year, Cameron was heard at Davos saying that Brexit was "a mistake, not a disaster".

Recorded by 5News while speaking to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the man who called the EU referendum admitted that the UK economy hasn't tanked in the way he once predicted.

"As I keep saying, it's a mistake, not a disaster," he said. "It's turned out less badly than we first thought. But it's…it's still going to be difficult.​"

In the interview with CNN, the former Prime Minister also discussed what he thought his legacy would be.

He said:

I obviously believe that I was right to hold a referendum, I made a promise to the British people, I kept that promise… I believe, a quite fundamental problem Britain had and was seeing with the development of the single currency and the beginning of decisions being made about us, without us and we needed to fix our position.

I wanted to fix it inside the EU, the British public chose that we would fix it from outside and I wish my successor well in being what I hope will be a good and friendly and close neighbour to the European Union, rather than as perhaps we were a slightly reluctant and sometimes unhappy tenant.

Read more: Overheard at Davos: Cameron says Brexit is a "mistake, not a disaster"

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