Former chancellor tells meeting of one nation group that right wing of party is 'acting up again'

Kenneth Clarke has reportedly told the Tory party's main one nation group that the party has accidentally drifted to the right.

In typically outspoken remarks, the former chancellor said at a meeting of the Tory Reform Group that David Cameron was having to work hard to cope with the Conservative right, which was "acting up again".

Clarke said he feared the right was using the economic crisis to follow a familiar pattern – attack a Tory prime minister who is trying to position the party in the centre ground. This reflects the thinking of Cameron, who reportedly remarked in the early summer that his party was going mad, according to the Spectator.

Asa Bennett, a reporter with London Loves Business who broke the story on Twitter, quoted Clarke as saying that the right of the party was "acting up again". In his report Bennett quoted him as saying: "The party has accidentally drifted to the right."

Clarke also joked about his new job in which he will oversee economic policy. "George wants me in to keep an eye on Vince, and Vince wants me in to keep an eye on George," he reportedly said.

Clarke was irritated with some of the reporting of his remarks because they did not mention that he went on to say that there was no ideological difference on economic policy within the coalition. The former chancellor was also annoyed by reports that he had criticised the cabinet changes.

The Guido Fawkes website reported his remarks under the headline: "Ken Clarke attacks Tory right and reshuffle".

In a statement, Clarke said: "These tweets give the opposite impression to the serious points I clearly made. It is slightly altered little phrases taken from different jokes and put together.

"I made the case for a successful coalition and stated there was no ideological divide within it on economic policy. On the economy I stressed that we were in for the long haul and that the chancellor's approach is the right one.

"I also said in passing that the reshuffle should not be interpreted as a shift to the right. Twitter is not renowned as an accurate form of reporting, but even I am surprised at distortions on this sort of scale."

But in his tweets Bennett never suggested Clarke had criticised the reshuffle. Nor did Bennett suggest Clarke had accused Cameron of drifting to the right. He reported Clarke as saying that the party had drifted to the right.