'The voters aren't mugs!' - Suella Braverman blasts Rishi Sunak's 'idiotic strategy'

Suella Braverman has blasted Rishi Sunak for his '"idiotic strategy" - after the Conservative Party suffered its worst ever defeat in a General Election.

Writing in the Telegraph, Ms Braverman said the Tories "deserved their defeat" after the party treated its voters like "mugs".

The blistering attack on the outgoing Conservative leader will be seen by many as the former Home Secretary blowing the starting whistle for a leadership bid.

Her name is one of a number that have been mentioned after Mr Sunak announced he was stepping down as leader following the party's trouncing in the election - which saw the Tories lose 251 seats.

A number of people who were expected to attempt to replace Mr Sunak, including Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt, lost their seats during the Labour landslide.

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who narrowly retained his seat despite a determined Liberal Democrat campaign, has ruled himself out of the running. Kemi Badenoch has also been tipped to join the race.

However other potential runners include Priti Patel, another former Home Secretary, Victoria Atkins, the former Health Secretary and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

Ms Braverman claimed it was unclear whether Mr Sunak had ever really meant for the controversial Rwanda scheme - now scrapped by Prime Minister Keir Starmer - to happen.

She wrote: "Rishi might not have meant Rwanda, and did not do it, but I meant it and wanted it done. The promise he’d do it is why I’m the guilty woman who helped make him PM.”

Ms Braverman believes the party's vote collapsed due what she described as an 'idiotic strategy' of occasionally making 'Tory right noises' - which she believes 'disintegrated when set against our liberal Conservative record'.

She added: " So many of the so few colleagues who survived letting Rishi be Rishi still don’t get it.”