David Cameron has dramatically deepened the Cabinet split on public sector wages by claiming those who want to lift the 1% pay cap are "selfish".
The former Prime Minister, who with George Osborne was the architect of the policy, controversially re-ignited the row among top Tories in a speech in the Far East.
Opponents condemned him for opposing pay rises for groups like nurses and firefighters when - it is claimed - he is now earning up to £100,000 for making speeches abroad.
His remarks, coming just hours before this week's Prime Minister's Questions, will almost certainly also be exploited by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his weekly Commons clash with Theresa May.
Speaking at an Asia Leadership Conference in Seoul, South Korea, Mr Cameron said: "The opponents of so-called austerity couch their arguments in a way that make them sound generous and compassionate.
"They seek to paint the supporters of sound finances as selfish, or uncaring. The exact reverse is true.
"Giving up on sound finances isn't being generous, it's being selfish: spending money today that you may need tomorrow."
:: Cabinet ministers pile pressure on Theresa May to ease austerity
His attack was no doubt aimed at Cabinet Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who have led calls to scrap the public sector cap, and was immediately condemned by the Conservatives' political opponents.
Mr Cameron's comments also reveal the extent of his bitterness at what his allies regard as their treachery in opposing him in last year's EU referendum, which prompted his immediate resignation as PM after he was defeated.
Earlier this week Mr Osborne published a cartoon in the London Evening Standard, which he now edits, showing the Foreign Secretary jumping on an anti-austerity bandwagon being pulled by Mr Corbyn.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell led the backlash against the former PM, declaring: "Only David Cameron would say that hard working people seeing their living standards fall back and their pay suppressed is good for them.
"It just further shows how out of touch he was then, and still remains today.
"The austerity measures such as the public sector pay cuts that he brought in, which Theresa May has continued, were meant to divide communities and undermine working people.
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