Norman Baker has compared the Liberal Democrats to a South African MP who fought the apartheid regime from the inside.

It is the second consecutive day the Lewes MP has been hit by secretly taped conversations published in a national newspaper.

The transport minister likened himself to Helen Suzman, the South African MP who openly opposed apartheid.

The Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying: “I always think in South African terms, should you be Nelson Mandela, outside the system, campaigning for it to be changed, or should you be Helen Suzman, who’s one of my political heroes actually.”

He added: “She got stuck in there in the South African parliament in the apartheid days as the only person there to oppose it... she stood up and championed that from inside.”

Mr Baker also said: “I don’t like George Osborne very much.”

He added: “I mean, there are Tories who are quite good and there are Tories who are, you know, beyond the pale, and, you know, you have to just deal with the cards you’ve got.”

The comments were part of a series of reports of secretly recorded conversations by undercover journalists posing as constituents.

Yesterday, Mr Baker said the meetings were “entrapment” and said they will put the relationship between MPs and the public “at risk”.