What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Labour MPs have blasted former Chancellor Nigel Lawson's decision to lead the Tory campaign to drag Britain out of the European Union – from his luxury home in the south of France.

Labour MP Karl Turner blasting: “If there’s a bigger hypocrite in British politics today than Nigel Lawson, I’d like to see them.

“Trying to break our ties with Europe while living in a luxury villa in deepest France – you really couldn’t make it up.

"Lawson already did his best to ruin Britain for the last generation, and now he wants to do it for the next.”

Lord Lawson was PM Margaret Thatcher’s slash-and-burn Chancellor for six years in the 1980s and became a Tory peer in 1992.

(Image: PA)

The 83-year-old ex-pat lives in Armagnac in a grand home with its own library and swimming pool.

But that has not stopped him taking on the role of president of Conservatives for Britain, an exit movement ahead of the EU referendum.

Lord Lawson said all were welcome to join the group.

He warned that David Cameron would only secure “wafer thin” reforms of the EU.

Writing in The Times, he said: “A number of my colleagues in the Conservative Party are waiting to see what the Prime Minister negotiates before deciding which way they

will vote.

“We cannot afford to wait that long.”

(Image: PA)

Lord Lawson, father of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson and journalist Dominic Lawson, insisted the fact he had emigrated to Europe proves he is not xenophobic.

“I am not anti-European,” he told the BBC. “The problem is not Europe , the problem is the European Union. It is way past its sell-by date.”

His appointment also faced criticism from rival Leave.EU campaign, which is backed by UKIP donor Arron Banks.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage raged: “Lord Lawson calls for all to support his campaign, but the fact it is called Conservatives for Britain and that he is so intimately associated with the Thatcher years is bound to limit appeal to Conservative voters.”