John Major urges Boris Johnson to sack chief adviser Dominic Cummings, branding him a 'political anarchist'

He praised the 21 Tory rebels for showing “character and courage,” insisting they adorned Parliament, and called for them to be reinstated because without them the Conservative Party would “cease to be a broad-based national party and be seen as a mean-minded sect”.

In a speech to the CBI annual dinner in Glasgow, Sir John also warned that the divisions over Brexit meant the “risk of separation” was growing but was not inevitable.

However, it is the former Tory premier’s broadside on the current Tory premier and his government that is the most eye-catching section of his keynote speech.

Sir John said the Conservative rebels, like Ken Clarke, Sir Nicolas Soames and Alistair Burt, “adorned” Parliament.

“The millions whose views they represent will not forgive or forget that they have been treated so brutally whilst the Brexiteers - who voted regularly against Mrs May - now sit in the Cabinet and reside at No 10.”

In a reference to advisers, including Mr Cummings, who he does not mention by name, he noted: “The legitimate concerns of those who have been banished from the party, their sturdy independence, their repeated support for a Brexit deal, their long and loyal public service to the Party, seem to be worth nothing; unless they become cyphers, parroting the views of a prime minister influenced by a political anarchist, who cares not a fig for the future of the party I have served all my life.”

The former Conservative leader said “over-mighty advisers” had been seen before.

“It is a familiar script; it always ends badly. I offer the Prime Minister some friendly advice: get rid of these advisers before they poison the political atmosphere beyond repair. And do it quickly.”

Referring to how one of the Chancellor’s advisers had been sacked and frogmarched by a police officer from Whitehall, Sir John noted: “There is no need for them to be led out of Downing St by armed police but go they should. And now.”

He called on the Government to change its tone, denouncing as “shameful” the way Mr Johnson had dismissed the parliamentary measure passed by MPs to extend Brexit as a “surrender bill”.

“Ministers routinely insult half the electorate as ‘Remoaners’. The surgeon who drew up the Yellowhammer risk register of epilepsy and neurology drugs is told he is a ‘fear-mongering Remainer’.

“Businessmen are warned that a negative attitude on Brexit will lead to their companies being frozen out of any future Government consultation.

“This is behaviour I never thought to see from any British Government and it must stop. The abuse comes from Cabinet Ministers and the threats from No 10 special advisers. I repeat: it must stop.”

Sir John went on: “Ahead lie many challenges. If we are to meet them, we need Government of the highest quality, not Government by bluster and threat in a climate of aggressive bullying.”

The former PM said that the divisions over Brexit was tearing Britain apart.

Stressing how withdrawal would be bad for the Union, industry, the young and poor as well as the future of the country, he claimed once outside the EU, the UK would have little or no voice.

“We are not used to being outside the inner circles of decision-making and we will hate it,” he declared, arguing that Brexit would not only weaken Britain but Europe too.

“Our new UK Government knows this to be true, yet they ignore it and pursue our exit from Europe on an artificial date, without a deal. Some do so for ideological reasons; others for political and personal advantage. Neither the ideologue nor the self-interested Brexiteer appears to put our national wellbeing first.”

Sir John pointed out how the “unelected” Government had no majority or mandate.

“The lack of its own mandate is not the only impediment to its moral authority to change the whole direction of our country. The new Cabinet is chalk and cheese in character to the one elected two years ago.

“It is not a Cabinet of all available talents; it is a faction of a faction with no counter-balance of opinion to hold it back. Upon Brexit, the Cabinet non–believers are mere window-dressing. They will not be listened to and will always be out-voted.

“This is a Cabinet committed to deliver Brexit ‘do or die,’ ‘come what may,’ as the Prime Minister puts it. They are pledged to this. Their seat at the Cabinet table depends upon accepting whatever deal the inner core of ‘hard-line’ Brexiteers decide upon.

“The campaign that won the referendum, with undeliverable promises and assertions that were then – and are still – false, are now in Downing St and in power.”

The ex-PM claimed rather than uniting the country, the new-look administration had locked out half of the electorate.

“Whilst pleading the ‘will of the people,’ they have redefined Brexit into the hardest and most uncompromising breach with Europe,” claimed Sir John.

Insisting there was and never had been a mandate for a no-deal outcome, he said: “When Cabinet ministers tell us that is what our four nations voted for we, the electors, know that is emphatically not the truth.”

He went on: “Once the Brexit blindfold falls away there will be a heavy price to pay for these factional politics.

“The Prime Minister tells us he is a ‘One-Nation’ Conservative; except, as we see, when it is convenient for him not to be so.

“Yet his strongest support has come from colleagues who could never be described as ‘One-Nation’ Tories and who would be aghast if they thought he would genuinely govern in that tradition.”

On the Union, Sir John said the “collapse of Unionism in England and ambition for independence in Scotland could lead to a calamitous outcome for us both”.

He noted that if Scotland would accept the cost of breaking from the UK, he had no doubt the nation could govern itself. But he stressed: “I believe Scotland and England together are greater than the sum of their parts; that is why I am a Unionist.

“If Scotland secedes, it will weaken every part of the United Kingdom; including Scotland,” declared the former premier.

He warned: “The risk for Scottish prosperity is that the volume of trade with England is three and a half times larger than trade between Scotland and the EU. But if Scotland abandons the Union, those tariff-free, barrier-free, border-free advantages could be lost.

But he noted how the Union was more than trade, it was also about culture and identity, the “mutual benefits to our way of life, our international influence, our world profile, our defence and security, our research and learning, and all the aspects of our long and close relationship”.

He added: “England and Scotland have long united around a common patriotism; Nationalism is not patriotism.

“If we let Nationalism divide us – Scottish Nationalism or English Nationalism – we will create a schism that cannot be bridged. And, if that comes to pass, we will all be the losers; in this generation and far beyond.”