Former cabinet minister Sir Leon Brittan has widened the Tory split over Europe, accusing William Hague of narrow mindedness and driving the party into the political wilderness.

Leon Brittan says Conservative Party is being led to the margins

In one of the fiercest counter attacks yet by the pro-Europe wing of the party, he claimed the Opposition leader's attacks on a single currency and fears of a federal Europe were outdated.

Later today he will press home his assault in a speech at the Carlton Club in which he will accuse Mr Hague of turning the Tories into a "party of dinosaurs".

The row will intensify next week when Mr Hague is expected to make a fiercely anti-european speech to British businessmen.

Harm UK-US relations

Sir Leon, who is Vice-President of the European Commission, launched his tirade in the wake of Mr Hague's recent denunciation of the single currency.

Hague: speech sparked backlash

That sparked an angry backlash by pro-Europeans including former ministers Michael Heseltine and Kenneth Clarke.

And on Wednesday former minister Michael Portillo used a speech in Washington to claim the Euro would harm British relations with the US.

The issue tore the Tories apart before the last election and contributed significantly to their dismal performance.

Sir Leon's intervention is a further sign that it is not about to go away and will continue to dominate the Tory agenda for the foreseeable future.

Out of date

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "It's not Europe that's out of date but the perception of what's actually happening in Europe today.

"Europe today is not a harmonising, centralising, protectionist Europe, but as we've shown in the trade area, an outward-looking Europe removing monopolies, removing barriers.

"The point about it is not how many people think it, but whether it's right. And there are a lot of people in the Conservative Party who don't think it's right.

A new poll taken after Mr Hague's speech showed his popularity plummeting and that Tony Blair is now more popular with Tories than William Hague.

Referring to the poll, Sir Leon said: "The Conservative Party is not doing terribly well and there's no evidence to suggest that that view of it is making it do any better," he said.

"The recent polls suggest to the contrary, and I believe that those of us like myself who have worked in the Conservative Party for 40 years and more, have a right to say that this is leading the Conservative Party, if you follow that narrow-minded route, to the margins of British politics and not back to power.

"Therefore it is in the interests of the country and of the Conservative Party that the broader view should be put across," he said.

And he warned Mr Hague not to look at the caricature of the EU or be "bemused" by Eurosceptic propaganda.