Nadine Dorries has accused her fellow Tory MPs of staging a “coup” against Boris Johnson.
The culture secretary was one of the outgoing prime minister’s staunchest supporters, sticking by him even as support for his leadership collapsed in Westminster.
Ms Dorris told BBC Panorama: “I was quite amazed that there were people who thought that removing the Prime Minister won the biggest majority we’ve had since Margaret Thatcher in less than three years.
“Just the anti-democratic nature of what they were doing on their own was enough to worry me.
“It was a coup for me too.”
Ms Dorris made the same claim on Monday when she also criticized those who opposed Mr Johnson.
“14 million people voted for the prime minister and a group of MPs, ministers, the chancellor, his acting chancellor, in what was effectively a coup, removed him,” she told GB News.
Ms Dorris has backed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race which will choose Mr Johnson’s successor in No 10.
She led an attack on Ms Truss’s rival, Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as chancellor last week is seen by Johnson’s allies as key to ending the prime minister’s grip on No 10.
Ms Dorris accused Mr Sunak’s campaign team of using the “dark arts” after claims they tried to “leak” votes to ensure Jeremy Hunt passed the threshold to enter the contest because they believed Mr. Sunak will defeat him in a run-off by party members.
Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid
(PA)
Sajid Javid, whose resignation as health secretary came minutes after Mr Sunak’s, sparking a mass exodus of ministers that led to Mr Johnson admitting his time was up, denied the move was co-ordinated.
Mr Javid told Panorama: “We haven’t had a single discussion about it. I had a feeling other people would follow.
Former Conservative leader Sir Ian Duncan Smith, who is backing Ms Truss in the race, said she should not ask Mr Johnson to serve in her cabinet if she wins.
“He has no desire to put a straitjacket around himself, having to run according to other people’s wishes,” he told LBC radio.
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