FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Mr Stewart baffled viewers during the BBC Tory leadership debate by taking off his tie minutes into the show with the four other remaining candidates. Last night he told BBC Newsnight: “I thought maybe if I took my tie off we could get back to a bit of reality. I was beginning to feel on those strange BBC bar stools that we were moving off into an alternate reality.”

But while he presented the manoeuvre as spontaneous, the masquerade awkwardly fell apart when the Tory leadership candidate spoke on All Out Poltiics. Host Adam Boulton asked: “What was the stuff with the tie? “What was all that about?” Mr Stewart replied: “I think I just wanted to take my tie off.

Rory Stewart: Sky's Adam Boulton interrogated the Tory leadership candidate over his tie stunt

“I was getting pretty frustrated in the corner of the room not really landing anything so I thought maybe if I take my tie off I can turn this around.” But host Adam Bolton had led the Tory minister into a trap: “Now Alex, our sharp-eyed floor manager who knows about these things, noticed that you went on stage the only one with your microphone on your lapel. “The others all had it on their tie. “So, therefore, you were planning on doing it. “It wasn’t spontaneous.”