This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A senior Conservative minister has held up a sign suggesting there needs to be an end to the "Eton mess" at the heart of Downing Street, in a reference to the public school backgrounds of David Cameron and many of his top advisers.

In a gift to Labour and Ukip, Lady Warsi, a former chairman of the Conservative party, appeared on ITV's Agenda programme holding up a mocked up newspaper headline reading "Number 10 takes Eton Mess off the agenda".

The fake front page is meant to be a light-hearted feature within the programme, but is likely to infuriate No 10 days after Michael Gove, the education secretary, attacked the "preposterous" number of Etonians in the prime minister's inner circle.

Warsi told the programme: "Michael was making an incredibly serious point that it can't be right that the 7% of kids who go to independent school end up at the top tables, not just of politics, but banking and law and every other profession, and that what Michael wants to create is a first class, world class state system which means that in future years you will have more pupils from state schools, people like me, around the cabinet table, and in that I fully support Michael Gove."

Gove appeared to be taking aim at the chances of yet another Old Etonian, Boris Johnson, succeeding Cameron as party leader after the general election.

He also described the concentration of Old Etonians as "ridiculous", adding that such a bastion of privilege does not exist in any other rich country.

But The Spectator magazine reported that Cameron was not happy with Gove for speaking out on the sensitive topic for the Tories and had told him he was "bang out of order".

The intervention by Warsi, a foreign office minister, is also likely to be seen as very unhelpful by Downing Street.

Jon Ashworth, a Labour shadow cabinet office minister, said the speeches suggest there is now "open warfare in the Conservative party".

"Sayeeda Warsi is making it clear that David Cameron is out of touch with a blatant attack on his style of government.

"Once again we are seeing the Tories fighting like ferrets in a sack rather than taking action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing hardworking people."