Rory Stewart is to launch a new centrist “party” modelled on Emmanuel Macron's ‘En Marche’, he has said.

The former Tory MP said it would be based on youth participation and the "radical exercise of listening".

Mr Stewart had the Conservative Party whip removed after he voted against the Government on the Benn Act, which requires Boris Johnson to seek a Brexit extension from the EU.

He told Cliveden Literary Festival on Saturday that setting up a new party was the right thing to do, even though it would be difficult under the UK's first past the post electoral system.

He was asked by a member of the audience whether the UK would see the “rise of the extremes and a centre party”.