Boris Johnson attacked by Tory Minister Anna Soubry for placing 'leadership ambitions ahead of our children's future'

'This issue was bigger than any one person,' says Small Business Minister

Anna Soubry was a strong Remain supporter (Rex)

Conservative in-fighting has continued as Small Business Minister Anna Soubry took a public swipe at Boris Johnson following the outcome of the EU referendum.

Ms Soubry, a Remain campaigner, accused Mr Johnson of historically supporting British EU membership and said he backed Brexit because of his ambition to “to be prime minister”.

"My anger with Boris is that I don't honestly believe that he believed what he was saying to people," she told Channel Four News.

The minister, who attends Cabinet, added: "Because, you know in all the newspaper columns that he has ever written, he has never said 'l'm for Out', and he positively told people - people like Nicholas Soames - 'I'm no Outer', and when I confronted him with all of this, all he'll ever say to me is 'It'll be all right, it will all be all right'.

"And do you know what I think? I think he didn't think that they would win. That's why it was all going to be all right, but for his own interests - wanting to be prime minister - he went for Leave, because it would serve him in his leadership ambitions.

"And I am cross about that because this issue was bigger than any one person. It was about my children, our children's future, and our grandchildren's future, and now they are seeing the consequences, as we warned them, as we said, come to reality."

Ms Soubry also accused Justice Secretary Michael Gove of not putting the national interest, or loyalty to David Cameron, ahead of his concerns on sovereignty, as other Cabinet members did.

The MP for Broxtowe has expressed dismay at the xenophobic feelings aroused during the referendum. In a different interview, she said she was worried that the referendum has “unleashed something” and the “overlying tolerance has been removed from Britain.”

She told the BBC:"I am an East Midlands girl through and through and I have seen stuff, I have heard stuff that I have not heard since I was a student in Dalston back in the late 1970s."

"I have seen people thinking that it's acceptable not only to shout traitor at you, but to stand and say I am voting Out because I want these immigrants out."

However, she was also criticised locally for blaming “white working class” voters who had “probably never even seen a migrant”.