Theresa May has witnessed another attack by a Tory Brexiteer on business after former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith linked the UK's biggest business lobby group to Nazi appeasement.

The prime minister this week sought to try and repair relations with business leaders following recent attacks by her top ministers on firms such as Airbus, who recently voiced fears about the government's handling of Brexit.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has also failed to deny he used a four-letter expletive to dismiss concerns from "those who profess to speak up for business".

Yet, despite Mrs May's view that "it's right that we listen to the voice of business", Mr Duncan Smith launched a salvo at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Writing in the Daily Mail on Thursday, the former work and pensions secretary claimed both Airbus and BMW, who also issued a recent warning about Brexit, are engaged in "Project Fear with a vengeance" in order to secure the EU-UK deal they want.


"A renewed attempt to scare the British people into embracing an emasculated version of Brexit, complete with the continued supremacy of the EU courts and single market regulations," he said.

Turning his fire on the CBI, which represents 190,000 businesses employing nearly seven million people, Mr Duncan Smith repeated an assertion he has previously made about relations between British and German business groups in the 1930s.

Image: CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn has warned about ignoring firms

He wrote: "Before World War II, as the historian Andrew Roberts has pointed out, the Federation of British Industries - the forerunner of the CBI - supported both the Gold Standard (which, in its constraints on a government's ability to manage the economy is an instrument of jobs destruction), and the appeasement of Nazi Germany.

"Between 1937 and 1939, while the Nazis were opening their concentration camps, the FBI oversaw the creation of no fewer than 33 separate agreements between British and German business groups."

Also citing CBI support for nationalisation, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and the euro, as well as hostility to Margaret Thatcher's policies, Mr Duncan Smith said the organisation has historically been "wrong" with "amazing consistency".

"Yet the worry is, despite the CBI's appalling track record, when it comes to Brexit, aggressive corporate campaigning could have a pivotal impact on government policy by forcing Britain to remain, in effect, under EU rules," he added.

"There are already signs that this is happening, with key figures in the cabinet now acting as cheerleaders for the argument - made by BMW and Airbus - that Britain must remain as closely aligned to the single market and customs union as possible."

In response to Mr Duncan Smith's comments, a CBI spokesperson told Sky News: "Hasn't he got better things to do?

"Business is getting on with making a success of Brexit, not avoiding the issues that matter for jobs by repeating tired, old nonsense from the referendum."

This week, in response to cabinet ministers' dismissal of business concerns about Brexit, CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn said: "Facts ignored today mean jobs lost tomorrow.

"It is firms who employ people, understand business risk and have the best insight into how the UK can grow.

"Their evidence is not inconvenient, it is essential to avoid an ideological approach to Brexit that could harm British prosperity."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tackled Mrs May over her ministers' actions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, to which the prime minister declared her government "have always backed business and we will continue to back business".