Nadine Dorries has taunted one of her former colleagues asking: "How's your CV coming along?" in a bitter blue-on-blue spat.
The former Culture Secretary unleashed her anger at Eastleigh MP Paul Holmes, saying he would learn "the hard way" at the next election. She claimed his seat was "gifted" to him and said he has "no idea" what a hard day's work looks like.
Ms Dorries has come under fire after the Tories suffered a bruising defeat in her former Mid Beds seat when she quit in anger after being passed over for a peerage. After Mr Holmes sarcastically said that the battering had "nothing to do with her", Ms Dorries angrily responded on Twitter: "Just like your election had nothing to do with you and everything to do with the man who won you your seat. A lesson you are about to learn the hard way. How’s the CV coming along?"
Mr Holmes picked up a 15,607 majority at the last election - but last week Labour turned around far bigger leads in two by-elections. He shot back at Ms Dorries: "Unlike you Nadine I work my seat, I work hard for them, and haven’t been AWOL for months and then pretend it has nothing to do with me."
The former Cabinet member, who is set to publish a book about Boris Johnson's "political assassination", retorted: "Your seat was gifted to you. You have no idea what a hard days work looks like. My last communication with you, but I’ll leave you with the most important political lesson of all - you can’t beat the swing. Good luck job hunting. I wish you well."
On Thursday Labour's Alistair Strathern won Ms Dorries' old seat with a 1,192 majority - overturning a massive 24,664 majority in the 2019 general election. This is the largest Conservative lead turned over by Labour at a by-election since 1945.
In an extraordinary TV rant on Friday night, the former MP fumed: “For the past 48 hours, Number 10 have known this was coming. Yet they still embarked on a delusional campaign of expectation management.
“This involved trying to shovel the blame before any results on anyone or anything other than the Prime Minister or the Party."
She accused the Tories of "desperate spinning", adding: “Many now say it’s not just over for Rishi but it’s over for the party too. It was Rishi himself who inflicted these damaging by-elections on the party."
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.