Former Tory leader William Hague has torn into blame-dodging Liz Truss and Boris Johnson for refusing to accept responsibility for their mistakes.
Lord Hague said political leaders who are unwilling to take the blame for their failures can have a "corrosive effect" on public life, pointing to Donald Trump's refusal to accept defeat in the US elections.
He mocked both Ms Truss and Mr Johnson for their stubborn responses to being ousted from power by their own MPs after chaos and scandal.
Writing in the Times, he said: "If you became Prime Minister, with a majority behind you and a decent term in front of you, but were overthrown amid chaos, there is indeed someone to blame. It’s you."
Ms Truss is attempting to whitewash her disastrous stint in No10 by blaming MPs, the public, civil servants and the markets for her downfall after her tax-slashing plans triggered economic chaos.
The ex-PM moaned about her critics in a 4,000-word essay for the Telegraph at the weekend, in her first public intervention since she was forced out of Downing Street after just 49 days.
In an interview with the Spectator, she also dismissed complaints that households have been hit by higher mortgage costs thanks to her catastrophic mini-Budget.
But in a small bit of good news, she said she had no plans to be PM again.
Her predecessor Mr Johnson tried to cling onto power as dozens of his ministers quit but was eventually forced to step down.
However the shameless ex-PM struck a bullish note in his resignation speech - blaming the "herd" of MPs for moving against him.
In a brutal takedown, Lord Hague said: "It is as if their ejection — at the hands of their own party — was due to events no one could have expected and forces that could not be controlled.
"They were confounded by a mysterious and powerful entity, perhaps a “Blob” or the dreaded Establishment, that jumped out and mugged them when they were innocently minding their own business as the most powerful person in the country.
"How could they do anything about that? They were shockingly let down by MPs who unexpectedly listened to the views of their constituents. What can a prime minister do with such people?"
He said Mr Johnson "showed no awareness of any personal failings that had led his party to turn on him" and said he had "tried to break rules that no one had previously thought it necessary to state".
Lord Hague also rubbished Ms Truss's attempts to blame the establishment for her disastrous economic policies.
He said: "The problem was not the power of a left-wing establishment but the force of good old right-wing arithmetic: there are limits on spending money you haven’t got."
He added: “It is your job as leader to find the best path, pick the right fights and summon enough help, and if you can’t do that it is your own fault, not something to blame on your companions.”
