A top supporter of Liz Truss for next Tory leader has accused her rival Rishi Sunak of orchestrating a "coup" against Boris Johnson.
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Nadine Dorries reluctantly told Sky News' Kay Burley on Thursday morning that MPs made a "huge mistake" in forcing out the much-criticised yet still-popular Prime Minister.
"It is not a secret that things happened that shouldn't have happened, and that Boris Johnson was removed via a coup," Dorries said, while trying to steer conversation back to the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham which she was attending.
Then-chancellor of the exchequer Sunak announced his resignation from Johnson's cabinet on the late afternoon of July 5, just minutes after health secretary Sajid Javid and in time to be reported on the early evening news. Their quitting precipitated a walk-out by dozens of ministers and parliamentary private secretaries from the government, forcing Johnson to announce he was stepping down 48 hours later.
In another interview with LBC's Nick Ferrari, Dorries took the opportunity offered by Ferrari to attack Sunak for constantly interrupting Truss in a recent debate, saying all woman MPs were used to being "talked down to" by male colleagues
And she dismissed rumours that she was ready to step down from her Mid Bedfordshire parliamentary seat, which she has held since 2005, to let Johnson take over from her.
That was based on speculation that the PM's majority of 7,210 in his suburban London Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency was not safe enough to ensure him a place in the next Parliament.
A laughing Dorries said the story was "100 per cent, nuclear-grade, totally invented tosh".