The BN veterans line-up assembled by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad are a bunch of hypocrites, decried an Umno grassroots leader.

Seputeh Umno information chief Mohd Shariff Badaruddin warned that the seven former senior leaders are out to destroy Umno.

"I view them as the 'sinister seven' who seek to break up Umno. I don't agree with what they said.

"They did one thing when they were in power and do another now that they don't have positions.

"If they want to be supportive of the opposition, that's fine. But I don't want to listen to what they say," he told Malaysiakini .

The 'sinister seven' - Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Muhyiddin Yassin, Shafie Apdal, Sanusi Junid, Ling Liong Sik and Ong Tee Keat - had on Monday jointly condemned the government for abusing the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma).

They were responding to the arrest of former Batu Kawan Umno deputy chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his lawyer Matthias Chang under the law, which was meant to curb terrorism.

The veterans also spoke about the challenges of booting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak out through a vote of no confidence when Parliament resumes its sitting next week.

Umno to remain loyal to Najib

Mohd Shariff said Seputeh Umno will not take what the seven former leaders seriously, and will remain loyal to Najib.

"We in Seputeh regard this as nonsense. We remain loyal to the current leadership," he stressed.

Kepong Umno Youth chief Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman also said the grassroots are behind Najib.

However, he told Malaysiakini , they are tired of the controversies and infighting plaguing BN.

"The grassroots support Najib but at the same time they want the government to solve the 1MDB issue as well as the RM2.6 billion donation scandal.

"There are too many conflicting statements among party leaders, government agencies and so on. It's giving us a headache, especially in trying to understand the 1MDB issue," he added.