Zealot eurosceptic MPs abuse anyone who disagrees with them, Ken Clarke says

The former Cabinet minister warned that ‘post-Brexit politics’ had changed in tone

Britain’s political discourse has been poisoned by paranoid eurosceptic “zealots” who abuse anyone they suspsect of wanting to stay in the EU, a former Cabinet minister has said.

Ken Clarke criticised the “hardline core” of eurosceptics “in the House of Commons and in the press”, who he said believed an establishment conspiracy was out to get them.

His comments come after Britain’s ambassador to the EU quit, warning of “muddled thinking” in the Government’s approach to Brexit.

Sir Ivan Rogers, who previously worked with Mr Clarke early in his career, left due to the approach eurosceptics were taking, the Conservative politician said.

“There’s a hardline core of eurosceptics, not the generality of eurosceptics, who are perfectly pleasant, intelligent people, but the real zealots in the House of Commons and in the press, who just turn to abuse of anybody who seems to faintly disagree with their very hardline, hard Brexit view and who believe there are great establishment conspiracies against them. This is all nonsense,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

“To turn everything into personal abuse when anyone seems faintly to disagree with our new zealot crusade to leave the continent of Europe is rather an unfortunate feature of our post-Brexit politics that I hope we soon lose.”

This week the senior civil servants’ union the FDA warned that some politicians had been subjecting the civil service to a “stream of ill-informed criticism”.

It emerged on Saturday that Sir Ivan had totally quit the civil service after stepping down from his role working for the Government in Brussels.

Mr Clarke, who backed Remain, also warned Theresa May that she would have to address the “serious” issues raised by Sir Ivan. He said that behind closed doors senior eurosceptics appeared to be offering nothing but “slogans” in lieu of policy.

Ms May has said she will trigger Article 50 to leave the EU by the end of March, giving the Government a few short months to address the criticisms of officials like Sir Ivan, were it to choose to do so.