A breakaway group of Tories could do the same damage to the Conservatives as the "gang of four" did to Labour in the early 1980s, Baroness Williams has warned.

She said that the Conservative Party could find itself pushed into the wilderness unless it shifted back into the centre-ground.

Williams, along with fellow Labour MPs David Owen, Roy Jenkins and Bill Rogers, dealt a body-blow to Labour in 1981 when they split to form the SDP.

She told the BBC's "Newsnight" on Friday that Hague faces the same prospect.

"I have the eerie feeling, I may be wrong, but I am looking at 1981 all over again. But this time played out for the Conservative Party as it was once played out for the Labour Party."

Williams said there were "large numbers of deeply disaffected" Tories in all levels of the party who are remaining silent until the election has passed.

She warned that they were preparing to split from the party in a move which would lead to "the destruction of the Conservative Party as led by Mr Hague".

In recent days the Tories have seen two former MPs defect to the Liberal Democrats. Sir Anthony Meyer signalled he would be supporting the Lib Dems and former minister John Lee also joined Charles Kennedy's party.

During the last parliament two sitting Conservative MPs, Sir Peter Temple-Morris and Shaun Woodward, defected to Labour and a number of peers left the party in protest at William Hague's leadership style.