Rising Tory star Johnny Mercer claims he would NOT vote Conservative if he wasn’t an MP

A RISING Tory star last night declared he wouldn’t vote for the party if he wasn’t an MP - and branded his own government a “s*** show”.

In a bombshell intervention Johnny Mercer said there was “absolutely no chance” he would have run to enter Parliament under the current state of the Conservative party because its values no longer align with his.

He attacked Theresa May for letting the Tories be “openly ridiculed” and said the party under her leadership had nothing to offer voters beyond Brexit.

The ex-British Army Officer - who has been tipped as a future Tory leader - said he would reject an offer to join the Government under Theresa May - and described it as an administration “heading towards the edge of the cliff”.

In an interview with the House magazine the Plymouth Moor View MP also revealed his ambition to become Defence Secretary - so he can “rip apart” the Ministry of Defence.

He said he would “reset the relationship between the military and the nation” - adding that he would need 10 years to overhaul the MoD to ensure it “gets the offer right to our young people”.

Mr Mercer has been a constant campaigner for giving the military more cash - and led the successful campaign to get the MoD to scrap its hated witch hunt against Iraq veterans.

In an extraordinary personal attack on Mrs May, he accused her of dithering on Brexit and described her Chequers proposal as a “classic professional politician’s answer” that pleases nobody.

He said about the soft Brexit plan: “It’s the ultimate in not making a decision”.

Mr Mercer said the Conservatives need a leader from a marginal constituency who has to fight to keep his seat every week and “knows what it’s like to go out every weekend and advocate for what you just voted for that week”.

In an astonishing admission when asked how he would vote if he hadn’t become an MP, Mr Mercer said: “I wouldn’t go and vote. Just being honest, I wouldn’t vote. There’s no doubt about it that my set of values and ethos, I was comfortable that it was aligned with the Conservative party. I’m not as comfortable that that’s the case anymore.”

But he vowed to stay in the party and fight to change it from within - saying: “I feel at the moment that I can’t just stand by and not say anything.”

Mr Mercer added: “I’m not going to sit at the back of the bus and watch it head towards the edge of the cliff. I’m not going to let us go down without a serious shit fight.”

He said: “It’s very difficult because in my DNA I’m inherently a team player. But when you go home from here on a Thursday and go for a run across Dartmoor or whatever, and you’re stripped to your core being, I mean, yeah, you realise it’s a shit show.”

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