The Conservatives will be committing "political suicide" if they attempt to push through a no-deal Brexit in the wake of their disastrous showing in the European elections, Jeremy Hunt has warned.

Writing for The Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said that any Prime Minister who tries to take Britain out of the EU without a deal will trigger a general election which risks the "extinction" of the Conservative Party.

He warned that Brexiteer leadership candidates risk putting Britain's "first Marxist prime minister" in Downing Street by Christmas because parliament would bring down the Government to stop no-deal Brexit.

Mr Hunt said: "The results contain a simple message which we ignore at our peril: if we attempt a general election before we have delivered Brexit we will be annihilated.

"Attacked by the Brexit Party on the Right and the Liberal Democrats on the Left, we will face extinction. Any candidate for prime minister whose strategy leads inexorably to a general election is offering a prospectus for disaster.

"Trying to deliver no deal through a general election is not a solution. It is political suicide, that would delight Nigel Farage and probably put Jeremy Corbyn in No 10 by Christmas."