Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has slammed former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak saying: "He wasn't working so hard, we all were."
Speaking to Dan Wootton in a GB News exclusive, she opened up on whether she saw Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid "plotting against the Prime Minister", Ms Dorries replied: "I had my suspicions."
She added: "Not least because when some difficult decisions were taken, like when we wanted to lift restrictions from Covid, it was very difficult to get the Chancellor at meetings to commit to any policies at all."
Commenting on the former Chancellor's recent campaign video, she said: "Rishi had been planning his campaign, to the letter, launched it the day it was ready, and everybody else's were kind of blindsided.
Rishi Sunak resigned last week following the Prime Minister's handling of allegations against Chris Pincher
Jonathan Brady
"Like, what's going on? We've all been working so hard. How can he have been that campaign-ready?
"Well the answer is, he wasn't working so hard, we all were.
"And I'm afraid we found ourselves in quite a difficult position."
Her comments follow Mr Sunak's resignation last week, following mounting criticism over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's handling of allegations of sexual misconduct against Chris Pincher.
The former Chancellor announced his leadership bid last Friday, in a ready-made campaign video, alongside the message: "Let's restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country."
Priding himself as one of the front-runners, attracting odds of 4/1 with several bookmakers, Mr Sunak’s rise from relative obscurity to household name came as he turned on the spending taps to protect jobs through the furlough scheme when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
His calm and collected delivery during televised Covid briefings could have endeared him to those perhaps not always plugged in to the political goings-on, as well as his resignation on matters of principle last week.
But his stock has taken a tumble recently following disclosures that his wife had non-dom status for tax purposes and he held on to his US green card while serving in Government.
Supporters will hope his latest £21billion support package will finally put to bed criticism about the response to the cost of living crisis.
Ms Dorries also warned about Mr Sunak's relationship with former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings.
She said: "His support for Rishi is off the scale.
"I think it's only because Dominic wants to be back at the heart and that should be a terrifying thought for anybody."
And the 65-year-old went on to say that "the Remain establishment, Labour and Putin were the three that wanted him out the most."
Referring to the Prime Minister, Ms Dorries added: "He got us through Covid, he lifted the restrictions, he delivered Brexit, so may policies I could just list them forever, all of these have been delivered."
The current MPs running for the role of Conservative Leader are; Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Grant Shapps, Nadhim Zahawi, Tom Tugendhat, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Kemi Badenoch, and Rehman Chishti.
The Secretary of State slammed Mr Sunak in an exclusive interview with Dan Wootton
GB News