The "scars" of the EU referendum campaign will mark the Conservative Party long after the vote, Liam Fox has warned.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, the former defence secretary and leading Brexit campaigner said the blue-on-blue attacks that have characterised the debate had gone too far.
"It’s fair enough in the referendum that we probe one another’s views, we can say ‘you don’t understand the argument’, we can say ‘you’ve got your facts wrong’," he said.
"What I think it unacceptable is for people to impugn the motives or the integrity or the honesty of their colleagues. I think that has happened and I think it’s very unfortunate, because these scars last well beyond the referendum date itself."
The Tory infighting reached new levels last week, when energy secretary Amber Rudd tore into Boris Johnson during the live ITV referendum debate.
The pro-EU cabinet minister accused Johnson of backing Brexit purely to further his aim of becoming prime minister.
"Boris is the life and soul of the party but he is not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening," she said in an extraordinary attack.
This morning the blue-on-blue infighting became even more bizarre, when Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries accused George Osborne of bribing another MP with "sniffing dirty socks" in order to keep him onside.
