Johnny Mercer slaps down Nadine Dorries' scathing attack on Rishi Sunak

Mercer told GB News: "It's good that she has resigned now and that the process in Mid Beds (Mid Bedfordshire) can continue.

"I’m always very sad when these things are played out in public, she's written a very personal letter to the Prime Minister, as is her right.

"You take some aspects in there that I'm familiar with, like defence spending, she talks about defence spending being cut.

"I mean, it's just fundamentally not the case.

"When I started in Parliament it was £38 billion a year, it's just under £50 billion a year now.

"This Prime Minister when he was Chancellor actually signed off the biggest settlement for defence since the end of the Cold War.

"Recollections may vary on some of these policies but, look, she's entitled to her view."

In a discussion with GB News' Deputy Political Editor Tom Harwood, he continued: "It's regrettable that Nadine has gone down the sort of personal route, but that is her right.

"She's been a Conservative MP for some time. She's resigned now, she said she would resign. We're going to have a by-election in Bedfordshire.

"I think everyone's kind of tired of raking over the coals of that Boris Johnson premiership, I think it was an extremely difficult time for many of us and we just need to get on with the pitch as it currently is now and deliver for people in the UK, who expect us to show that delivery by the time of the next election."

Mercer added: "I think we have to work harder to make people really feel those benefits and feel that stuff is being done.

"But I don't think the characterisation that we've seen of the Government this morning is fair, of course I don't, but people are more than entitled to their opinions."

On Saturday, Dorries resigned from the Commons, over two months after she pledged to go "with immediate effect".

The Treasury confirmed it had been notified of her intention to formally step down.