On Friday, Cameron and European leaders agreed to EU reforms including welfare payments for migrants and protection for countries that do not use the euro currency.
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“Britain will be out of the parts of Europe that do not work for us – we will be permanently and legally protected from being a part of an ever-closer union”, he said.
But on Sunday, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced he would support an exit in this “once-in-a-lifetime chance to vote for real change”.
The deal sets the stage for campaigning to start in earnest over a so-called “Brexit” ahead of a referendum on June 23.
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“I think that the people who make these arguments are the same as the people who warned that we shouldn’t leave the ERM, which turned out to be the salvation of the United Kingdom economy; and they are the same as the people who said that we had to join the euro, which turned out to be a catastrophic mistake and a very unfortunate enterprise”.
Mr Johnson’s support for Brexit was seen as a blow to the Prime Minister.
It was a rare mention of another country’s planned vote by China, which does not like to interfere in internal affairs, and was quickly played down at the time by a Cameron aide, who said the European Union “wasn’t a huge part of their discussion”.
At 9 a.m. EST, the pound fell 2.3 percent to $1.4073, the sharpest one-day fall in seven years, according to Financial Times, and the lowest the pound has been since March 2009.
Johnson is the most prominent Conservative Party politician to have broken ranks with Cameron’s vision of the best course for Britain in a June 23 referendum on European Union membership.
The premier emphasised that he has promised not to contest the next election and had “no other agenda than what’s best for our a country”, a reference to speculation that Mr Johnson is backing Brexit as a move on the Tory leadership.
The idea of a second referendum option has reportedly been floated by Mr Johnson as a way of getting further concessions from the EU.
Gove joined Christopher Grayling, leader of the House of Commons, Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader, employment minister Priti Patel, culture minister John Whittingdale and Northern Ireland minister Theresa Villiers in support the leaving camp.
In a column for the Daily Telegraph, Johnson, who is also Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, said: “This is a moment to be courageous, to reach out – not to hug the skirts of Nurse in Brussels, and refer all the decisions to someone else”.
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Following his return overnight from his marathon European Union negotiating session, the Prime Minister said that leaving would threaten Britain’s “economic and national security”.
