Prior to their dismissal from government, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak offered to let Muhyiddin Yassin and Shafie Apdal resign from cabinet, said Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

"Before they were sacked, Najib offered to let them resign from cabinet honourably.

"In cabinet, he (Najib) had said, 'If I have said something or advised many times but (you) still don't agree or still raise confusion, then resign'.

"However, they didn't want to resign,” the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told Utusan Malaysia.

When the pair refused to do so, he added, the prime minister had not choice but to sack them.

He also said if their criticism of 1MDB was the reason for their sacking, then the two should have been given the boot back in 2014.

Muhyiddin and Shafie were dropped during a surprise cabinet reshuffle last year.

The duo were then sacked from Umno in June this year, for working too closely with the opposition.

Muhyiddin has since formed Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) together with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, while Shafie formed Parti Warisan Sabah.