Ken Clarke, who served in Conservative governments under prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Cameron, gave the unguarded comments in a Sky News studio.
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Ms Clarke said he did not believe party members would vote for Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who was a surprise entrant to the contest last week after withdrawing his support for fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, effectively ending the former London Mayor’s hopes.
Some observers have wondered whether Sky should have used the footage when Rifkind and Clarke clearly thought the cameras were off them.
The former Chancellor said the contest was an “utter fiasco” and suggested frontrunner Theresa May was a “bloody hard woman” while discussing the race with fellow party grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown was famously recorded calling a voter “bigoted woman” to his aides after she suggested that her relatives should be given priority over immigrants for services.
‘We exchanged looks and Liam was raising eyebrows.
Mr Clarke added: “She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market. She’s been in the Home Office far too long”.
‘I mean Theresa is a bloody hard woman, but then you and I [Rifkind] worked for Margaret Thatcher, ‘ Clarke laughs.
Stephen Crabb escapes unscathed from these remarks because Clarke, who is about to meet him, knows nearly nothing about him, and has heard others speak well of him.
Mr Clarke also expressed doubts Mr Johnson and fellow campaigner Ms Leadsom believed in leaving the European Union at all.
Clarke goes on to claim that both Johnson and Andrea Leadsom didn’t really care about leaving the EU. Theresa May also came under fire from Clarke who called her a “bloody hard woman” but pointed out that both he and Rifkind had already worked with Margaret Thatcher. I don’t know her very well – it was only three years ago, she’s had a Pauline conversion.
He continued: “I get on all right with her. and she is good. She doesn’t know much about foreign affairs”, he added. In a case of high praise indeed, he concedes that Leadsom could be okay as Tory leader so long as she “understands not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she’s been saying”.
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Mrs Leadsom said in 2013 she did not think Britain should leave the EU. He is so genial, and so brutal, about the candidates that one’s first wish is that he could take his accustomed place among them – for Clarke, it should be remembered, stood three times for the leadership, and was three times turned down.
