Boris Johnson’s friends tried to stop him backing Brexit, saying they did not think he actually believed in it.
Guto Harri, a longtime ally of Johnson, revealed the last ditch attempts made by the former PM’s family to try and stop him backing Vote Leave.
Harri said he never thought Johnson would actually back Brexit and warned him he would end up with a “gang of people” he did not like.
It is just one of a series of revelations made by Harri who went on to serve as Johnson’s communications chief in No.10.
“Boris had been genuinely torn I think,” Harri said in his new podcast Unprecedented.
“Should I stay or should I go? And he’d written two articles one making the case for stay in the EU one making the case for leaving.
“I never thought he’d go for it. I actually thought that common sense would prevail but on a skiing holiday in Italy I got a call from his sister Rachel, somebody who is massively opposed to Brexit.”
Harri said Rachel asked him to talk Johnson out of “doing something very stupid”.
“He was indeed about to jump,” Harri added. “So I called him and pleaded with him: Please don’t do this. It’s intellectually the wrong thing to do. I don’t think you actually believe it. You will end up with a gang of people that you don’t actually like, you’ll be stuck with this decision.
“Yes, it may help you become prime minister but you’re going to be prime minister one day anyway. This will just sour the well.
“It will come back to haunt you - believe me. He ignored me. I turned on the telly and there he was outside his home back in London.”
It comes after a bombshell new book claimed Johnson admitted they had “no plan” on the night Britain voted to leave the European Union.
The Vote Leave campaigner said he “didn’t think it would happen” as Brits backed Brexit by 52% to 48%, according to Johnson at 10.
The book, by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, described how Johnson stayed up all night watching the TV at his Islington home and only towards dawn did he realise that leave would actually win.
“What the hell is happening?” he kept saying, before it hit him: “Oh shit, we’ve got no plan. We haven’t thought about it.
“I didn’t think it would happen. Holy crap, what will we do?”
The book claims Johnson “still muttering” went off to write the speech he knew he would have to soon deliver.
Skip forward nearly seven years and MPs are still debating the consequences of leaving the European Union amid growing concern over the decision.
Ministers have previously rejected a call for an official probe into the effects of leaving the EU.