Richard Dawkins infuriates Twitter users after 'patronising' rant about UK voters ahead of the General Election

The evolutionary biologist criticised the Conservative Party's referendum on staying in the EU

Richard Dawkins is no stranger to infuriating people with his strident views on religion, but he's now managed to irritate a proportion of the British electorate.

The biologist and avowed atheist stated that the British public was not qualified to decide on whether the UK should stay in the EU.

Criticising the Conservative Party's manifesto pledge of a referendum on Europe, in which everybody would have a vote, he said that ordinary people didn't understand the ramifications of an exit.

It's one of the key promises to entice people to vote Tory, but it didn't work on Dawkins, who has in the past supported Labour and the Liberal Democrats. He believes that MPs should make the decision for their constituents.

However, the very idea that not all of the electorate is knowledgeable enough to make an informed decision on the issue sparked outrage.

Dawkins may have inspired the ire of his followers, but he's not the only one to have spoken out against the proposal. Tesco chair John Allan has also criticised it, calling it "a particularly heavy kind of pebble to put in the scales".