Tory leader William Hague was last night under renewed pressure to expel MP John Townend over his outspoken remarks on race after one of the party's most respected black figures weighed into the controversy.

Lord Taylor of Warwick - a former Home Office advisor and Tory parliamentary candidate - angrily dismissed Mr Hague's refusal to withdraw the Tory whip from the Yorkshire East MP as a "cop out"'.

In a scathing attack on Mr Hague's leadership, he accused him of "macho" posturing, boasting about his beer drinking exploits, while failing to deal with the challenge posed to his authority by Mr Townend.

He also accused Mr Hague, who this week claimed the Tories would be the first British party to elect an Asian leader, of saying different things to different audiences on race issues.

The race row was re-ignited on Thursday when Mr Townend wrote to the Commission for Racial Equality, attacking the idea of a "multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual society", and accusing ministers of wanting to make the British a "mongrel race".

Mr Hague, who has already rebuked Mr Townend once for earlier remarks he made on race and immigration, yesterday again repudiated his comments, insisting they did not represent Conservative policy.

But he said it would be pointless to withdraw the whip now - effectively expelling him from the party -- as Mr Townend was standing down at the next General Election.

That drew a furious response from Lord Taylor who denounced his response and suggested he had failed to act because he was "frightened of a certain right wing element in theConservative Party".

Union chief Bill Morris will today accuse Mr Hague of being detached from the reality of modern-day Britain.

Ethnic minority Britons were being excluded from the debate about immigration, the TGWU boss will tell the TUC's Black Workers' Conference in Perth.