He added: “I am proud of the way this long competition has been run. Priti (Patel), Mel (Stride), Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly; We worked together as a team, discussing ideas and policies.

“Kemi’s election is a great shame this is last minute defiling it to trade it for personal attacks. If Kemi does this to his Conservative colleagues it will be the death of the Conservative Party.

“With all due respect, these comments are complete nonsense. This is misinformation. These are petty personal attacks. I want to unite the Conservative Party.

“Your audience is tired of this nonsense, they want it to end. “If Kemi is going to act like this as the leader of the party, the party has no future.”