Former veterans minister Johnny Mercer has claimed being in the Conservative Party is similar to “working in a really s**t company” with those in charge not having “a clue”.
In a sign of the unease in the party’s ranks over the approach to Afghanistan, the Tory MP suggested there was no “real direction or leadership or responsibility” over the last week as the situation deteriorated.
Mr Mercer, who was “forced” to resign as defence minister over the government’s treatment of veterans in April, also suggested politics was a “lonely place” and had often thought about his position as an MP.
“I’m sick of all this [working for veterans and soldiers] for a Conservative Party and a government that treats me with contempt,” he told the Evening Standard.
On his role as a Tory MP, Mr Mercer said: “I’m not going to lie to you: it’s something I think about everyday. Being in the Tory Party at the moment is like working for a really s**t company where everyone takes the p**s out of you and everyone running it hasn’t got a clue”.
The MP for Plymouth, Moor View, also suggested “not a single member of the Conservative Party phoned me up” after the shootings in the city earlier this month, which he described as “very rare but grotesque violence”.
The scathing remarks came as Boris Johnson faced criticism from MPs of all stripes in Parliament — after the government ordered a recall for an emergency session on the situation in Afghanistan as the capital, Kabul, fell to the Taliban.
Theresa May, the former prime minister, also hit out at ministers’ “incomprehensible” failure to bring together an alternative alliance to prevent the collapse of the Afghan government.
Suggesting the events unfolding in the region were a “major setback” for UK foreign policy, Ms May asked: “We boast about Global Britain, but where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul?”.
During the emergency debate, Mr Mercer, who served in Afghanistan, also accused the prime minister of “consistently failing” to support former soldiers properly and urged the government to “step up”.
Warning there could be a “bow wave” of mental health issues among veterans following the withdrawal of forces in Afghanistan, the Conservative MP said: “We are not trained to lose and we are not trained for ministers to, in a way, choose to be defeated by the Taliban.”
“Was it all for nothing?” he asked. “Of course it wasn’t for nothing and we have to get away from this narrative.
“Whether we like it or not for a period of time Afghans — the average age in Afghanistan is 18 years old — they will have experienced a freedom and privileges that we enjoy here and no one will ever take that away from them.”
