A furious Michael Howard has today ended the political career of Howard Flight, his former deputy chairman, who was caught on tape admitting that the scale of his party's planned spending cuts were being concealed.

The Tory leader issued a statement saying simply: "Howard Flight will not be a Conservative candidate at the next election."

Mr Howard was backed tonight by the leadership of Mr Flight's local constituency association, which confirmed that a new candidate would be sought to replace the MP at the forthcoming election.

Mr Flight had earlier suggested that his local party may defy the leader's wishes and select him as an independent Conservative candidate.

The former Tory high-fligher was sacked from his post last night after an audio tape of his remarks at a private dinner were leaked to The Times and released on Times Online.

Listen to Howard Flight: 'nakedly political' (wav)
Howard Flight: 'unashamedly sieved' (wav)
Howard Flight: 'unthinkable economy' (wav)
Howard Flight: 'you have to win first' (wav)

That sparked a day of drama at Westminster today with Mr Howard withdrawing the whip from Mr Flight, blocking him from standing as the official Tory candidate for Arundel and South Downs, one of the safest Tory seats in the country.

Mr Flight remained defiant though, telling BBC News 24: "It's a democratic party and it will be for the local association and party to decide what to do." But tonight the association snuffed out any potential clash with the party hierarchy.

Angela Litchfield, chairwoman of the Arundel & South Downs Conservative Association, said in a statement: "Howard Flight has been a first-class constituency MP and has made a huge contribution to the Conservative Party over many years.

"We are all extremely sad at what has happened. However, we support Michael Howard and in the interests of the Conservative Party we will be selecting a new candidate shortly."

Mr Flight was caught on tape saying that the Conservative manifesto contained only an edited version of the party's proposals to cut the budget for public services. The plans for cuts outlined in the Tories' James report had been "sieved" to make them politically acceptable, he said.

But he claimed that the Tories could do more after they won the election because "everyone on our side of the fence believes passionately that it will be a continuing agenda".

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