So much for him going quietly! Sacked Tory veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer attacks Liz Truss for not doing enough to support Britain’s war heroes ahead of his appearance on Channel 4 reality show ‘Make Me a Prime Minister’

• Plymouth MP ditched by the Prime Minster launches a fresh ‘blue-on-blue’ attack
• Mr Mercer was ‘disappointed’ the PM ‘chose to urinate’ on work to help veterans
• The MP also branded some Tory leadership candidates as ‘utterly delusional’  
• His comments come ahead of his debut on Channel 4’s ‘Make Me Prime Minister’

Prime Minister Liz Truss has been accused of ‘urinating all over’ a pledge to support Britain’s retired military heroes in a blistering critique by a former veterans’ minister.

Johnny Mercer hit out at the under-fire PM during a Facebook live event with his constituents in Plymouth last night, in the latest ‘blue-on-blue’ incident to blight the Conservative Party.

Mr Mercer, who was ditched from his role in government when Ms Truss came to power last month, also took aim some of his ‘utterly delusional’ Tory colleagues who put themselves forward to become the next PM.  

And the retired Army officer issued a fresh demand for the UK to do more to support its veteran community as he told constituents: ‘With Liz, I don’t think she knew what she was doing. I don’t think anybody understands the veterans’ affairs construct in Government.’

His comments came ahead of his debut on the third episode of the Channel 4 reality TV programme, Make Me Prime Minister on Tuesday, and just hours after Ms Truss’s first speech as Tory leader at the Conservative Party Conference. 

Former veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer blasted Prime Minister Liz Truss during a live broadcast on his Facebook on Wednesday evening. Ms Truss is pictured at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham hours before on Wednesday morning

Plymouth MP’s comment came ahead of his appearance on Channel 4 reality show ‘Make Me Prime Minister’ next week. Mr Mercer is pictured on the programme

During Mr Mercer’s 55-minute live broadcast on Wednesday evening, the 41-year-old father-of-three argued that the role of veterans’ minister should be promoted to a Cabinet-level position, as it was under Boris Johnson’s premiership, and not a junior ministerial job.

The Plymouth Moor View MP said: ‘It’s very frustrating because politicians go on about veterans all the time but actually do, they really want to understand how the system works and what it feels like to be a veteran – I’m not sure.’

He added: ‘Whilst we made huge progress and I did achieve that, it wasn’t enduring. That’s the problem. I think we should continue to campaign on it. I think it is very important and it’s changed a lot of lives and I’m just very disappointed the Prime Minister choose to urinate all over it.’

Mr Mercer was appointed veterans’ minister by Mr Johnson on July 28, 2019. Three months later and the UK launched its Office for Veterans’ Affairs.

In an open letter to veterans and their families in July of this year, Mr Mercer said the office had ‘achieved great things since its conception’, with a ‘bold strategy’ being set out to ‘improve’ veteran healthcare, employment and access to digital services. 

But talking last night, the Conservative MP feared this progress could be stunted and insisted the UK ‘can’t continue to be the only country out of our peer nations’ like America, Australia and New Zealand that ‘doesn’t have a cabinet minister for veterans’ affairs’.

‘We can’t be the only country that continues that ad infinitum,’ he added. 

As well as criticising the Government’s policy over veterans, Mr Mercer also took aim at fellow Tory MPs who threw their hats into the ring to become the leader of the Conservative Party – with some, like Home Secretary Suella Braverman, now sitting in Ms Truss’s top team

He said: ‘Some of them suffer from some quite severe delusion and it’s hard to believe that these people think they could be Prime Minister… some of these candidates are utterly deluded and that’s the only reason I would put myself forward because I think that actually I could do a better job. 

‘But I don’t want to, no, and I think you have got to really want it and that’s a problem for me.’

Mr Mercer has been vocal about his views of the new administration in Downing Street.

Writing on Facebook on Monday, the Plymouth Moor View MP admitted he had found ‘recent turn of events surprisingly tougher to deal with than I expected’ following his sacking last month.

‘Of course, I have a view on what is going on in Government, and you can guess what it is,’ he added.

‘You know I will not accept budgets like the one we saw last week.

‘It is hard watching these rather comedic figures masquerading as Government ministers sprawling around in the media.’

And his outspoken wife, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer. has been equally as vocal with the 42-year-old blasting Ms Truss, comparing her to Beaker from the Muppets and calling the PM an ‘imbecile’ after sacking her husband. 

The sacked minister’s wife, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer, said the Cabinet system ‘stinks’ and ‘treats people appallingly’ after her husband was removed as veterans affairs minister

Mrs Cornelius-Mercer posted this picture of her ‘drunk’ husband asleep on the sofa in February after the defeats of his local team Plymouth Argyle to Chelsea in the FA Cup, and England to Scotland in the Six Nations rugby

Tweets shared by Mrs Cornelius-Mercer have led to criticism over the type of content she shares – which includes topless images of her husband and others with him donning lycra

Mr Mercer, the Plymouth Moor View MP, had also appeared angry about Ms Truss’s move, saying he was ‘disappointed’ but accepted the new PM is ‘entitled to reward her supporters’

She said the system ‘stinks’ and ‘treats people appallingly’ after her husband was booted out of the cabinet after less than two months in the role he helped set up.

And she has been championing an online petition demanding the government to reinstall the role of veterans minister to cabinet. 

But earlier this year, Mrs Cornelius-Mercer faced criticism for tweeting about her husband’s drunken escapades: ‘So… funny story… the Prime Minister rang tonight directly after an afternoon of FA Cup football and England rugby… and Johnny was so p***** he can’t remember what was said’.

Mr Mercer defended his wife after she was blasted for posting the tweet.

‘She’s on this nuts journey with me – the highs and many lows. She is more than entitled to take the p*** out of me/the PM/whoever she likes,’ he wrote online.

Since January, the government has launched its £5 million Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund was ‘to harness the best of British innovation and to accelerate the development of health and wellbeing treatments and interventions for veterans’.

Ministers are expected to decide on which project to support as part of this in later this year. 

MailOnline has approached the Ministry of Defence for comment on its future plans to support veterans.  

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