David Cameron sounded the alarm over a "massive transfer of powers" to the EU seven years before he led the campaign for Britain to stay inside the bloc.
A recently unearthed video from 2009 shows then-Leader of the Opposition slamming the EU’s proposed plan, which would later become the Lisbon Treaty.
The treaty aimed to streamline the institutions that govern the EU, giving the bloc its own legal identity for the first time.
Cameron was clearly not convinced by this arrangement, making it clear to then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he must put it to the British public in a referendum.
In the video, unearthed by Facts4EU for GB News members, Cameron says the EU’s pact would surrender Britain's sovereignty to Brussels.
He describes this as "a massive transfer of powers" that "ends our veto, our right to say no, in about 60 areas".
The then-Conservative leader said the treaty "gives the EU the right to sign Treaties, and the right to sign new Treaties, and to pass new Treaties, new Constitutions, without asking us again, the people of Europe."
Facts4EU
|David Cameron speaking as part of the 'WebCameron' series
The video formed part of the 'WebCameron' series, which saw the Conservative MP address a range of policy issues.
It predates the Conservative Party's official YouTube account, which was set up in 2010 after Cameron swept to power.
The early WebCameron videos were later taken down from all servers and even web archive services.
The significance of the date
This particular video was published just before the EU Parliament elections in 2009, the first time UKIP - Britain's chief Eurosceptic party at the time - finished runner-up.
PA
|Nigel Farage at the count for the European Parliamentary Election in 2009
At the next European elections in 2014, the Conservatives were easily beaten by Nigel Farage’s party.
Following the 2015 General Election, where Cameron's Conservatives won a narrow majority against Ed Miliband's Labour party, the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
This was before the emergence of the Brexit Party, which in 2019 easily beat both the two main parties in the European elections.
Britain left the EU on January 31, 2020, at 11pm.
Why this is relevant now
Earlier this month, former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith accused Cameron of treating the 2016 Brexit referendum as "some sort of Eton game".
Smith, who served in the role under Boris Johnson, was also the Government's chief whip from 2016 until 2019 under Theresa May's premiership.
He told the BBC: "I joined the Conservative Party because of David Cameron, because he was dynamic.
"But looking back on it, it was unforgivable that this fundamental question was put to the British people when you have a whole range of issues, not least the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland."
Lord Cameron, who has since served as Foreign Secretary, has defended his decision to call the referendum.
He said: "I believe and still believe that the fact that we hadn't had a referendum on this issue for 40 years, despite the fact that the European Union was changing...was actually beginning to poison British politics - it was certainly poisoning politics in my own party.
"And I think, more broadly, people felt 'well, we have been promised referendums and they haven't been delivered' and people were beginning to feel very frustrated about this issue."
GB News has contacted Lord Cameron for a comment.
More From GB News