The UK is going through a “political nervous breakdown”, with the Brexit debate stirring anxiety in Whitehall, a former MI6 chief has claimed.

Sir John Sawers said the Brexit debate had left the country bitterly divided and damaged the UK’s global reputation.

Sawers told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are going through a political nervous breakdown here in the UK. We have potential prime ministers being elected by the Conservative party now, [and] in the shape of the leader of the opposition, who do not have the standing that we have become used to in our top leadership.

“Whether people can develop that when they become prime minister, we will have to wait and see, in terms of the candidates for the Conservative leadership.

“But I think there is a lot of anxiety. As we leave the European Union we take a huge risk to our international standing, to the strength of the British economy.”

Quick guide Tory leadership contenders Show Hide Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



The former spymaster said it was not surprising that “the people who have devoted themselves to serving the interests of this country” are concerned about the direction the country is heading in.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader and chairman of Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, hit back at Sawers’ remarks that the country was struggling with a political and emotional crisis.

“Actually, I think he might be going through a political nervous breakdown,” Smith told the Today programme. “I’m certainly not going through one and I don’t think my party is either, to be honest with you.”

Smith described Sawers’s comments as anti-democratic, saying: “The reality is that the expression of democracy may well frighten him slightly.”

Smith said he disagreed with the argument that Britain’s membership to the EU should not have been put on a public ballot.

“The truth is the British people were asked a very serious question and this whole leadership election comes down to a simple factor, we have not delivered on what they asked for so the decision that the membership take is who will now deliver on it by 31 October.”