𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Theresa May’s former chief of staff has been booted out of the Conservative Party after waging a months-long war of words against Kemi Badenoch.

But the Daily Express understands the axe fell over his behaviour and not his beliefs.

Lord Barwell was told he would not be getting the whip back after repeatedly firing off broadsides against the party and its leader, and refusing to engage with internal processes.

A Conservative Party source told the Daily Express the peer had been booted out for “being constantly rude on Twitter”, insisting bluntly: “It’s for bad behaviour, not beliefs.”

The party is said to have finally run out of patience after Lord Barwell snubbed a request from the chief whip to explain himself on his return from a leave of absence.

In a stinging letter sent to the peer, Tory chief whip Baroness Williams of Trafford, accused him of making “a series of public statements directed against both the Leader of the Opposition and the Conservative Party.”

She drew a hard line between honest disagreement and outright disloyalty, writing: “There is an important distinction between disagreement and conduct that undermines the discipline and mutual respect upon which any serious political party depends.”

Baroness Williams said his “repeated public attacks on the Party” and his refusal to engage with its processes had “fallen short” of the standards expected of those who take the whip.

Tory sources say the peer had been needling party bigwigs for months, repeatedly using social media to snipe at the leadership rather than raising his concerns behind closed doors.

Lord Barwell served as Mrs May’s chief of staff throughout her turbulent time in Downing Street, helping draw up her ill-fated Brexit deal which was ultimately torn apart by MPs.

Since the election he has morphed into one of Mrs Badenoch’s most vocal critics, at one stage branding the party a “Reform tribute act” over its pledge to quit the European Convention on Human Rights.

He is a prominent member of the Prosper group of Tory moderates alongside fellow big beasts former home secretary Amber Rudd and former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

Commenting online Lord Barwell said he was “still getting text messages from the Whips telling me how to vote” which implied the “party’s right hand doesn’t know what its left hand is doing.”