Margaret Thatcher’s former head of press has likened the leader of the Labour party to a “pestilence” and told centrists in the Labour party to “purge” him.

Bernard Ingham said Jeremy Corbyn and his allies wanted to keep “the working man” “under their thumb” and that he was “dangerous”.

He urged Labour’s right wing to remove him, claiming that his politics was “never what the Labour party has stood for”.

“In all honesty and with Christian charity, I urge Labour's moderate majority, however daunting the task, to resolve for 2016 to purge itself of this pestilence,” he wrote in the Yorkshire Post newspaper.

“The truth is that Corbyn and Co are Marxist. While they pretend to represent the working man's best interests, they want to keep him under their thumb.

“Nothing is too good for the workers who are in charge. The rest can do as they are told whether by the ruling elite or by unions such as Len McCluskey's Unite.

“Corbyn has a contempt for the facts of economics life. His anti-austerity policy regards conventional economics of paying your way with derision. He sees nothing wrong in borrowing up to the gills and leaving our grandchildren to foot the bill with a debauched currency while we pay higher taxes now.”

Mr Corbyn was overwhelmingly elected by Labour members, supporters, and affiliated trade unionists in September of this year.

He however faces significant opposition amongst Labour’s MPs, with regular briefings against him by disgruntled Blairite backbenchers and even some members of his own shadow cabinet.

The leader has said he would not “purge” MPs with whom he disagreed and that members should treat each other with respect.

Despite Sir Bernard's call bookies Ladbrokes are now offering more likely odds on Jeremy Corbyn staying leader until the 2020 election than being replace before it.

Sir Bernard has a history of making controversial comments. In 2013 he described northerners who did not vote Conservative as “thick”.

On another occasion he claimed that the Hillsborough football disaster was caused by “tanked up yobs”, making his allegation in a letter to a parent of the victim of the disaster.