Lord Heseltine: Huge number of Tories feel 'betrayed' over Brexit handling

Lord Heseltine Credit: ITV/Peston on Sunday

Lord Heseltine has said some members of the Tory party are "bitterly disappointed" over the Government's handling of Brexit.

Speaking to ITV's Peston on Sunday, after his sacking as a government adviser after backing an amendment to Theresa May's Brexit Bill, the Tory peer said:

"A huge number of Conservatives are appalled, they feel that have been betrayed by what is going on now."

"The truth of the matter is, those of us in politics, those who care, we're not performing fleas, where the ring master says jump, " he continued.

"We happen to believe for all sorts of very powerful reasons that British self-interest was inextricably interwoven with those of our European allies."

Lord Heseltine voted in favour of amending the legislation to include a provision which would give Parliament a vital say on Britain's final deal - negotiated by Theresa May - with the European Union.

He told Robert Peston: "I'm very sad. I'd spent the last six years helping Tory minister in pursuing what I believe domestically are at the heart of the need to rebuilt our economy.

"To break the monopoly of London, to empower the local economies, to create an opportunity where the public and private sectors work together as opposed to slagging each other off and we made a lot of progress," he added.

Lord Heseltine added that the prime minister has taken the view his role was to come to an end and she is "entitled to do that".

But the former Conservative cabinet minister insisted he would "certainly not give up" an interest in critical "social, economic and industrial issues."

Lord Heseltine said he had not spoken to Theresa May personally about his sacking. Credit: AP

The Tory peer also dismissed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's earlier remarks that the UK would prosper and "be perfectly OK" in the event it was unable to secure a post-Brexit deal with the European Union.

Lord Heseltine pointedly said: "That's rubbish, isn't it".

He went: "He has turned the art of political communication into a science in which waffle, charm, delay, anything to stop actually answering questions. He does it magnificently."

When asked if he had thought about resigning from the Conservative party, the Tory peer paraphrased former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, saying: "Stick to your party. Damn your principles."

"I hope I don't damn my principles," he added.