Christoph Blocher, Switzerland's leading rightwing -politician, was ejected from government yesterday in a shock parliamentary vote that called into question the country's decades-old system of consensus politics.

The failure of the billionaire industrialist to be re-elected as a minister, following an ambush by leftwing and centrist foes, could push his ultranationalist Swiss People's party (SVP) into opposition and open the way for a more Anglo-Saxon, adversarial style of politics.