France's Europe Minister has expressed his deep regret at causing offence by calling the Conservative Party "autistic", but also blamed a mis-translation for the furore today.

Pierre Lellouche said that he was voicing his real concern about the Tories' Eurosceptic slide under David Cameron when he reproached the party for "a very bizarre sense of autism" in an interview with The Guardian.

He also called their hostility to the European Union "pathetic" and said that the party's policies in the European Parliament had "castrated" them. Aside from the political row, the remarks were condemned by autism advocacy groups.

However, although the minister said today his remarks were "clumsy", he claimed that the term, which is colloquially used in French to refer to a stubborn person who does not listen, is a common term of political abuse in France.

"Pierre Lellouche fully understands the emotion that has been aroused and bitterly regrets that he may have wounded people," said Franck Allisio, his spokesman. "The words used obviously do not reflect the substance of his thought and the clumsiness was completely unintended."

"In French, the term autistic has been totally trivialised through overuse. President Sarkozy is called autistic every day," said the spokesman. "I understand that in English that this word could shock. That was a glitch. It was a misunderstanding."

The remarks came not from an interview but a five-minute conversation in the back of a car, Mr Allisio added.

Mr Lellouche, 58, a junior minister with a reputation for a sharp tongue, criticised the Tories' "possible downward slide to Euroscepticism". "You have to admit that David Cameron's six points are especially tough".

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, today dismissed the claim by Mr Lellouche that he was reflecting mainstream opinion in France and the views of President Sarkozy.

“We have had a bit of an emotional outburst from one of the French ministers, but I don’t think we should take that as a sign of how things will be in the future,” he told Sky News. “I think more senior members of the French Government would take a more careful approach. We take that in our stride.”

However the Tory leadership was also hit by a double resignation today as two Eurosceptic MPs quit the frontbench in the European Parliament.

The attack on the Tories has embarrassed the Sarkozy Government because of its outspoken language. The Elysee Palace declined any comment. However, Mr Lellouche was merely expressing in undiplomatic language the dismay among the mainstream French political world over David Cameron's approach to Europe.

Mr Lellouche, who is pro-Atlantic, an Anglophile and far from a Euro-federalist, was voicing genuine concern that a Conservative government would sideline Britain further from the Union when France needed it as a close ally, French officials said.

Allies of Mr Lellouche came to his defence. MPs in the French Parliament's Franco-British Friendship Group said that Mr Lellouche had been misunderstood and that he was addressing, in strong language, the widely held view that Mr Cameron's policies would damage Britain's strong role in Europe.

French autism groups said that the affair demonstrated how offensive was the current use of the term in French public discourse.

Patrick Sadoun, a member of the Sesame Autism Association, said: "The English are right to be shocked. I congratulate a country that reacts to this. I am horrified that French politicians, at the slightest occasion, call one another autistic."

In the UK, the National Autistic Society criticised Mr Lellouche for using the term autism intemperately.

“Autism (including Asperger’s syndrome) is a serious, lifelong and disabling condition. Comments such as those attributed to Pierre Lellouche, in which he seemingly suggests the Conservative party, and in particular, William Hague, demonstrate ‘a bizarre sense of autism’ are therefore extremely unhelpful,” Benet Middleton, the director of communications for the charity, said.

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