The Conservative MP Guto Bebb has said he will stand down at the next election, saying he has grave concerns about Boris Johnson’s suitability to be prime minister and the party’s appeal to the far-right.

Bebb said Johnson would be a disastrous prime minister and that he expected there would be a new election by the spring.

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The MP for Aberconwy, who has backed a second referendum, told BBC Radio Cymru that he would not be able to support either Johnson or Jeremy Hunt if they kept a no-deal Brexit on the table and said he had returned his ballot paper without casting his vote.

“The leadership contest … has shown me that there are attitudes within the Conservative party that don’t appeal to me at all,” he said. “I also think someone has to be totally honest with the voters. I have listened very closely to the two who are challenging for the leadership and I’ve come to the conclusion that I could not, with any conscience, offer myself as a candidate who agrees with the leadership.”

He said the referendum had revealed “trends within the party that appeal to the extremes” and said it was clear the party was aiming to appeal to English nationalists.

“Despite everything I don’t believe I’m an English nationalist, and what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that the Conservative party appeals to that type of nationalism like that that has seen Ukip’s growth in the past and the Brexit party’s growth recently,” he said.

A former member of Plaid Cymru, Bebb said he he has no intention of re-joining the party. “I don’t think Plaid Cymru has changed that much,” he said. “I don’t believe in some of their economic principles. I consider myself Welsh, I can be completely comfortable with being part of an union in Britain and the European Union. What’s not possible for someone like me is to believe in the type of English nationalism that we are now seeing within the Conservative party.

“I don’t believe in nationalism at its worst in any context and certainly the nationalism I see in the Conservative party currently concerns me.”

Bebb, who voted remain in the 2016 EU referendum, resigned as minister for defence procurement last year in order to vote against the government.

