THE Conservative party is becoming “an extreme right-wing faction”, the former Chancellor Philip Hammond has said.

One of 21 Tory MPs stripped of the whip for rebelling over a no-deal Brexit last week, Mr Hammond said his party had been taken over by “unelected advisors, entryists and usurpers” and was no longer the one he had joined.

The reference to unelected advisors was directed at Dominic Cummings, the hugely controversial chief strategic adviser to Boris Johnson.

Mr Hammond’s comments followed Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd dramatically quitting the cabinet and resigning the Tory whip on Saturday night.

She said the sacking of the 21 MPs rebels had been “an assault on decency and democracy” and a short-sighted “act of political vandalism” she could not support.

In response, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is under intense pressure to follow Ms Rudd out of the cabinet, tweeted: The Conservative party has always been a broad church shaped by those within it. Gutted to see Amber leave - but hope other One Nation Tories will stay and fight for the values we share.”

In reply to Mr Hancock, Mr Hammond said: “Sorry Matt, I’m afraid the Conservative Party has been taken over by unelected advisors, entryists and usurpers who are trying to turn it from a broad church into an extreme right-wing faction. Sadly, it is not the party I joined.”