The peer confessed he now expects the Government and right-wing media will dismiss him as "a funny old fart".

He told Talk Radio: “They have dismissed me as a funny old fart and that’s what they’ll do. The hatchet boys of the right-wing media will rubbish me, like they did John Major.”

He told the BBC that he believed Mrs May was "exercising her perfectly legitimate right to get rid of opposition in any way she finds appropriate".

"Whether it's a wise thing to do is a matter for her not for me," he said.

"I have been hugely proud of the work I have done for David Cameron and now for this prime minister, and if they don't want me to go on they must sack me.

"I did write a newspaper article the other day setting out exactly what I intended to do so I think they could have told me this would be the price, but let me make it quite clear; I would still have voted as I did tonight.

"Sometimes in politics there are issues which transcend party politics; in the end you have to be your own person. I believe our interests are intertwined with Europe. I am not prepared to change.