Tory MP Johnny Mercer would not vote for the Conservative Party if he wasn’t a politician, he has admitted.
In a interview in which Mercer launched a number of attacks on his own benches, the former Army officer told The House magazine he “wouldn’t go and vote” if he left the military now.
“Just being honest, I wouldn’t vote,” the Plymouth Moor View MP said. “Of course I wouldn’t, no.”
Mercer - who won his seat from Labour in 2015 - continued: “If the situation was like it is now, I can safely say there would be absolutely no chance that I would try and be a Member of Parliament.”
Branding the current administration a “shit show”, the 37-year-old told Parliament’s weekly magazine that the Tories have lost the ability to “scrap for what we believe in”, calling the Chequers Brexit proposal a “classic professional politician’s answer”.
“It doesn’t make anybody happy,” Mercer said. “It’s the ultimate in not making a decision.”
Meanwhile, he said it would take voters “a generation” to forgive the Conservative Party if its failings helped usher in a Labour government.
“I’m afraid that Jeremy Corbyn maybe a nice chap, but him and more importantly his team in charge of this country would fundamentally change Britain, what it means to be British.”
Revealing that his ambition is to become defence secretary and have 10 years to “rip apart” the department to make it work for young people, Mercer said he is a patriot “above everything”.
“I’m not going to sit at the back of the bus and watch it head towards the edge of the cliff,” he added. “I’m not going to let us go down without a serious shit fight.”
Mercer’s fiery comments come on the same day that a summit of EU leaders in Brussels ended without a major breakthrough on Brexit negotiations, with the issue of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic remaining a major hurdle.
During a key session at the summit, Theresa May refused to rule out extending the so-called “transition” period from 21 months to a full three years in order to secure a final Brexit deal.