Philip Hammond threatens to sue Conservatives over loss of party whip

‘This is my party, and I am not going to be pushed out of it,’ says former chancellor

The former chancellor now sits in the Commons as an independent (EPA)

Philip Hammond has threatened to sue the Conservative Party after he lost the party whip. The former chancellor said he was taking legal advice over the lawfulness of the action.

In a scathing article for Surrey Live the MP vowed not to be “pushed out” of the party by “unelected Downing Street advisers” - a thinly-veiled reference to Dominic Cummings.

Mr Hammond lost the whip, alongside 21 Tory colleagues, after voting against the government to pass legislation that could block a no-deal Brexit.

“I am saddened that the Conservative Party (run by people who were serial rebels under Theresa May) has resorted to purging anyone expressing dissent,” wrote Mr Hammond.

“We all know only too well where that road ends up.

“I have been a member of the Conservative Party for 45 years; I have been a Conservative MP for 22 years, a frontbencher for 21 of them and a cabinet minister for the last nine years.

“This is my party, and I am not going to be pushed out of it by unelected Downing Street advisers who are not Conservatives and who care not one jot whether the party has a future.

“Nor will I have my party taken from me by entryists and usurpers who have infiltrated the party ranks, in an attempt to turn it from a centre-right broad church into an extreme right-wing faction.”

Mr Hammond is one of a number of MPs to criticise Mr Cummings, a controversial senior adviser to Boris Johnson,

The former Vote Leave chief has a powerful role in shaping the prime minister’s Brexit policy.

“I am currently taking legal advice with regard to the lawfulness of the actions taken against me and my colleagues last week and the processes that have been followed,” Mr Hammond said.

“In the meantime, I have written to the chief whip asking him to provide a formal statement of the reasons for the removal of the whip, the process by which that decision was made and the procedure by which it may be challenged.”

“I will decide in due course how I intend to proceed and my colleagues will reach their own decisions.”

Mr Hammond has repeatedly warned of the dangers of a no-deal Brexit.

The treatment of the rebels has angered moderate Conservatives and triggered Amber Rudd’s resignation on Saturday, which capped a disastrous week for the prime minister.