Former Conservative chairman Lord Tebbit has launched a stinging attack on David Cameron, while heaping praise on the prime minister.

Lord Tebbit, a close ally of Baroness Thatcher, said it was only natural that Gordon Brown should depict himself as her "heir".

In an interview with the Times Magazine, to be published on Saturday, the Tory grandee said of Brown: "I think he is a clever man and I have a very considerable regard for him."

Asked about Baroness Thatcher's recent visit to Downing Street, Lord Tebbit said it was "Gordon Brown at his very best, a wonderful mixture of his courtesy and his political nous".

He went on: "After all, Cameron described himself as the 'heir to Blair'; it's only natural that Brown should make himself the 'heir to Thatcher'. It's the perfect response, isn't it?"

Dismissing suggestions that the prime minister had exploited his predecessor's frailty, he said: "I'm quite sure that Margaret Thatcher knew exactly what she was doing.

"She's too well-mannered to rebuff the prime minister and second, of course, the Conservative leadership has been at great pains to distance himself from her - and she is, after all, a woman."

Lord Tebbit also said the Conservative Party lacked "somebody of the standing of Margaret", and explicitly criticised Cameron.

"But what a lot of people will suggest is that they don't know how the other half lives.

"David and his colleagues - the very clever young men they have in Central Office these days - are very intellectually clever but they have no experience of the world whatsoever.

"He [Cameron] has spent much of his time in the Conservative Party and as a public relations guy.

"Well it's not the experience of most people in the streets. That's the real attack and that's damaging to him, I think."