Britain must halt the transfer of powers to Europe if it is to avoid an increase in English nationalism, John Redwood has warned.

In a speech to mark St George's Day, the former Welsh secretary said he did not welcome the growth in nationalism but urged the government to address the underlying causes.

"Those who today believe they can truss us up into new units of government, in feudal allegiance to a European bureaucracy, will discover they have ignored the voice of the people and gentle scepticism of England for too long," he told an audience in Falmouth.

"Our history shows England awakes late to defend freedom, but always awakes in the end."

The Wokingham MP warned that political correctness was "strangling the irreverent spirit of scepticism towards pomp, authority and expertise that has created the delightful humour of the English people".

"Many of us intuitively grasp there are stirring dragons to slay," he said.

"There is the dragon of too much government interference. His fire damages our long traditions of freedom for all English men and women.

"And there is the dragon of European centralisation. His mighty wings are beating the England we love into a subservient role, as more and more power of government passes to Brussels."

Redwood said EU integration and regional devolution were jeopardising the English identity.

"We see the beginnings of the long march to a stronger English nationalism here at home. People now feel they need to assert their Englishness that before they took for granted," he said.

"Give Scotland its own parliament and tax raising powers and many more in England complain that they are paying the bills for higher public spending north of Hadrian's wall.

"Dismember England and soon the North East will be demanding equal treatment with Scotland as regions grow fractious against the centre.

"It is easy to unpeel the onion, but difficult to find its heart and impossible to put it back together."