Johnny Mercer’s wife turns her guns on Truss

Tory wives: where would we be without them? Among the casualties of today’s reshuffle was Johnny Mercer, the veterans’ minister who duly published a farewell letter on Commons headed paper, defending his record in post. The former soldier wrote how ‘disappointed’ he was ‘to leave a role I established’ adding, acidly, that ‘any Prime Minister is entitled to reward her supporters.’ But now his wife Felicity has revealed the truth behind the lengthy statement, with a pithy tweet featuring a blonde Beaker of the Muppets.

Felicity Cornelius-Mercer declared on Twitter this evening that Mercer, the ‘best person I know’ had been ‘sacked by an imbecile.’ According to her, Truss was unable to give a justification for the Plymouth MP’s dismissal. She wrote online: ‘He asked her “why would you do this, who is going to be better at this role than me, which of your mates gets the job, you promised a meritocracy?” Truss then replied ‘I can’t answer that Johnny.’ Cornelius-Mercer concluded ‘This system stinks and treats people appallingly.’ Talk about echoes of Sarah Vine and Michael Gove’s dismissal in 2014.

Bang goes Johnny’s chances of promotion in the next reshuffle then…