A pro-Ukip businessman who forced Liam Fox to resign as Defence Secretary is behind an extraordinary bid to defeat a ‘golden boy’ Tory candidate.

Tycoon Harvey Boulter has already given £30,000 to the Ukip candidate fighting Fox in his Somerset seat in a continued vendetta against him.

Boulter is also spending another £30,000 to try to defeat Tom Tugendhat, who is standing for the Tories in Tonbridge and West Malling, Kent.

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Pro-Ukip businessman Harvey Boulter (above), who forced Liam Fox to resign as Defence Secretary, is behind an extraordinary bid to defeat a ‘golden boy’ Tory candidate

Tugendhat’s father, Sir Michael Tugendhat, is the High Court judge who awarded Fox a six-figure sum in damages after he sued Boulter for libellous remarks made on Sky TV.

Fox resigned from the Cabinet in 2011 after Boulter revealed details of how Fox’s close friend, businessman Adam Werritty, accompanied him on overseas trips as Defence Secretary.

Mr Boulter said: ‘This may look like naked revenge and in a sense it is. I was outraged with what happened in the court case.’

A Tory Party spokesman last night declined to comment.