Sir Rocco Forte was such an admirer of Boris Johnson that he paid for a £12,000 party to celebrate his victory in the Tory leadership contest before handing over another £100,000 to back the Conservatives at the last General Election.

Now, however, the hotel tycoon and leading Brexiteer has launched an astonishing attack on the Prime Minister for failing to 'control' his wife, Carrie.

'One of the important things, of course, is to keep his wife under control,' Sir Rocco told guests during a speech at a Club Di Londra dinner at Brown's Hotel, which he owns in Mayfair.

The guests were mainly Italian businessmen, but his Italian wife, Aliai (pictured, with Rocco), was also present.

He added of Boris: 'Unfortunately, when we elected him he didn't have a wife, and now's he's got a wife who had a child, then a second child, and actually tells him what to do.'

Admitting his views are sexist, Forte said: 'I know I'm a misogynist, but this is a bit too much for any country.'

Sir Rocco, 77, is the son of Trusthouse Forte owner Lord Forte, who was forced to bow out as chairman of his hotel empire at the age of 83, causing a family trauma.

Sir Rocco has admitted of his 1992 battle for power with his Scottish- Italian father: 'The only time we really came to blows was when I took over.'

Lord Forte, who became Britain's best-known hotelier, was reluctant to step down from the business he had founded in 1934.

A close ally of Margaret Thatcher, he died in 2007 aged 98.

Sir Rocco, whose family fortune was estimated at £345 million before the pandemic, recently announced that he would withhold further donations to the Conservatives.