Tory woes compounded as ex-deputy leader Lord Heseltine says party has ‘no appeal’ to him

He bemoaned the immigration debate that he believes is focused on “stoking up human indignation and resentments” and called for a party to show support for rejoining the European Union (EU).

Asked by Camilla who he would vote for, he admitted to giving a “cop out answer” as he referenced his inability to take to the ballot box given his title.

He went on to add: “No one has appeal and I have not been part of the campaign.

“I would find it very difficult to vote for anyone who stands for Brexit. It is a disaster, a betrayal of business interests and a betrayal of the Conservative Party I've worked for ever since Winston Churchill led it.

“You then have to weigh the balance and it’s the awful dilemma that Keir Starmer had with his question about Corbyn. I'm telling you I would find it very difficult to vote for somebody who believes in Brexit.”

Heseltine blasted the lack of choice for Rejoiners in the political sphere, telling Camilla that “nobody has the first idea what the conditions should be for us to rejoin or when”.

He added: “All we know at the moment is that it's been a disaster of historic proportions to leave Europe: threatened our investment programmes, our living standards, our influence in the world, our ability to coalesce with our colleagues over climate change.

“And we now have got ourselves at the centre of the most difficult issue of our time, which is immigration.

"I am deeply worried that this is being sloganised in a way that syncs up people's emotions, and makes absolutely no contribution at all to the issue itself.

“The [immigration] figures are too high, and there will have to be controls. But exactly the same debate is going on in Europe. And nobody can tell you how that will resolve itself.

“I have ideas but certainly there is a changing mood in Europe and I wish we were part of the debate within Europe. That would be much healthier than being on the outside and shouting misleading slogans.

“If I compare [European leaders] with some of the people who are trying to be elected to the Parliament here, like Nigel Farage, for example. Yes, I would rather be associated with people in Europe. I mean, to me, if you think about it calmly, the suggestion that we have responsibility for Mr. Putin.

“The interesting thing is that Mr. Putin uses exactly the same argument to justify his war, as Nigel Farage uses in order to leave Europe: ‘Get our country back’ is the phase but in Putin’s language, it's ‘Recreate Mother Russia, the Great Imperial Russia.’

“And it's exactly the same approach to basic instincts. And it's thoroughly immoral, thoroughly distasteful and very dangerous and it's happening across the world.”