David Cameron is ‘despicable, an a*** and on the way out’ says senior Tory MP

Patrick Mercer, a former army officer, also reportedly predicted that Mr Cameron would be ousted in a backbench coup next spring.

The comments, said to have been made in a conversation recorded without Mr Mercer’s knowledge, came less than a fortnight after the Prime Minister suffered a major rebellion on his backbenches over a vote calling for a referendum on the UK’s future membership of the European Union.

Mr Mercer reportedly said he would “rather take a beggar off the street” and put him in Downing Street than have his party leader in No 10.

He was also said to have called Mr Cameron a “despicable creature without any redeeming features”, and “the worst politician in British history since William Gladstone” – one of Mr Mercer’s predecessors as the MP for Newark.

Asked whether backbenchers would launch a leadership coup against Mr Cameron, Mr Mercer was said to have replied: “He’ll go in the spring. He’ll resign in the spring.”

Tory right-wingers have been angered that the former defence secretary Liam Fox, recently forced to resign over allegations surrounding his friendship with a defence consultant Adam Werritty, was not replaced by another right-winger.

Conservative backbenchers also believe that Mr Cameron is too comfortable with his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, and closer to them than most of his own party.

Mr Mercer said the material had been obtained “by subterfuge” at an event during which he had conversations with “a number of people”, and added that he was consulting his lawyers over the recordings.

The Conservative Party said it had no comment to make on the alleged outburst, but added that such remarks did not necessarily merit disciplinary action. There was no comment from Downing Street.

Mr Mercer was sacked as a shadow minister by Mr Cameron in 2007 for making inappropriate comments about ethnic minority soldiers, and is known to be a critic of the premier.

The MP, the son of a former Bishop of Exeter who served with the army in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, implied racial abuse was part and parcel of army life.

But he said at the time that his claim that it was normal for an ethnic minority soldier to be called a “black b*****d” had been twisted.

The outspoken politician, who went on to be a security adviser to Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, was among backbenchers who rebelled last month over holding a referendum on European Union membership.