Commons legend Ken Clarke has refused to say if he voted Tory in the general election .
The veteran ex-Chancellor - who stepped down last month after being thrown out of the Conservatives by Boris Johnson for his anti-Brexit views - admitted he "puzzled" over the decision despite spending 49 years as a Tory MP.
Mr Clarke said he is “contented” with his Tory replacement in Rushcliffe but also endorsed defectors Dominic Grieve, David Gauke, Anna Soubry and Phillip Lee.
And in September he admitted he hadn't made up his mind and could vote Lib Dem.
Today he told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I’m a discontented Conservative and I’ll keep it a private matter.”
It comes after another Thatcher-era grandee, Lord Heseltine, urged lifelong Tory voters to back independents or Lib Dems in a failed bid to thwart Boris Johnson's Brexit plan.
Mr Clarke said: "For logistical reasons I cast my vote in London in the Vauxhall constituency, where I certainly did not vote Labour but Labour won there.”
Labour's Florence Eshalomi won a majority of almost 20,000 in the inner London seat against the Lib Dems, Tories, Greens, Brexit Party and an independent.
Asked if he’d get a peerage, Mr Clarke said he was “not personally expecting to get the telephone call” but added: “I don’t know, ask Boris!”.
He added PM’s aide Dominic Cummings was unlikely to see him as “eligible”, given reports of stuffing the Lords with Brexiteers - despite his former status as longest-serving MP.
During today's interview he said Boris Johnson appeared to lack a plan for government after winning an 80-seat majority.
The ex-chancellor told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live: "The governing of the country is more than going round saying, 'Oooh, 2020 is going to be a golden year, we are going to be a global Britain'.
"At the moment we have a stagnant, fragile economy; an angry discontent population, particularly the white working class in the North and north Midlands where I am.
"It is a very dangerous world out there in many, many ways.
"We don't have any policy on social care, which is the biggest single domestic problem facing us.
"We have got to do something about skills training and education if we are actually going to get these left-behind towns in the North to catch-up with the rest and benefit from the modern economy."
Mr Clarke told the BBC it appeared that the Government was following the agenda of the Prime Minister's chief special adviser Dominic Cummings rather than that of elected officials.
He said: "The optimistic side of me thinks if Boris does read the brief and now gives some serious thought to what he wants to do now he is Prime Minister, you never know, he could turn out to be a very sound, moderate, One Nation Conservative.
"Boris could still surprise everybody. But at the moment, when I read the newspapers, Dominic Cummings seems to be briefing the newspapers on his own personal agenda and says the Government is going to re-organise departments, tackle Ministry of Defence procurement - well, I agree with that, that needs tackling - and so on.
"I don't get the impression that politicians are in charge, together with someone who knows something about governing."
The former Tory leadership contender said it "hasn't sunk in really" about leaving politics.
He said the last election was the first since he was eligible to vote where he was not standing as a candidate.
