Dorries says Sunak 'unleashed hounds of hell' in Johnson coup as she defends suit attack

Nadine Dorries has defended her "robust" tone in supporting Liz Truss to become prime minister and said her controversial attack on Rishi Sunak's expensive attire was a "point that needed to be raised".

The culture secretary raised eyebrows on Monday when she hit her former Cabinet colleague with a tirade of criticism on Twitter, condemning the leadership contender for campaigning in a "£3,500 bespoke suit", while his rival Ms Truss was wearing £4.50 earrings from Claire Accessories.

She tweeted again hours later following the first head-to-head leadership debate on the BBC, during which Mr Sunak was accused of 'mansplaining', saying he is "irritable, aggressive, bad tempered".

Team Truss and team Sunak have been accused of running unedifying campaigns, with both sides issuing personal attacks on their opponents.

But Ms Dorries was unapologetic when speaking to ITV News. She said she was compelled to point out Mr Sunak's expensive suit because it was "not a good judgement call" to wear clothing worth thousands in Redcar, which is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the UK.

Pressed about her tone in attacking Mr Sunak, the Cabinet minister said: "Look, it's going to be robust, I've said all along. When you remove a prime minister who had an 80 seat majority... and then plot to unseat him, the effects of that are not going to be pleasant."

"I said at the time, the hounds of hell have been unleashed," she added, "I said it was going to be a long hot summer, it is not going to be an easy process".

Dorries defends 'robust' tone of leadership campaigns

Tories outside the campaigns have been criticising them for the lasting damage they could cause the the Conservative Party, with both sides attacking the government's performance, but Labour says its a gift ahead of any general election.

The two leadership contenders themselves appear to have acknowledged the impact running such aggressive campaigns and there was a much friendlier tone at a TalkTV debate the day after the BBC's.

But the briefed attacks started again swiftly after. Team Truss accused Mr Sunak of a "screeching U-turn" following his announcement that he'd cut VAT on energy bills, a move they said he made in a "gambit for leadership".

He'd spent weeks attacking tax cuts made by other leadership hopefuls, saying they were promising fantasies that would damage the UK economy in the long term.

But the former chancellor, trailing in the polls, said he would immediately cut VAT on energy bills if elected prime minister. In February, as chancellor he categorically rejected calls from opponents for the tax cut, saying it would "disproportionately benefit" the wealthy.

With Ms Truss the bookies' favourite, Mr Sunak has not got long to turn his fortunes around.

He has just over a month of campaigning before the winner of the Tory leadership race is announced on September 5. The winner, elected by more than 160,000 Tory members, will assume office on September 6 after Mr Johnson departs Number 10.

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Mr Sunak and Ms Truss will take part in their first hustings event on Thursday evening, the first of 12 during the campaign.

The pair will be quizzed in Leeds for two hours by Tory members who will ultimately decide who gets the keys to No 10.

Tax and spending are likely to be the key points, but other potential topics up for debate include immigration, identity politics, Brexit, defence, climate change and the NHS.

Ms Dorries insisted the "party will unite and rally behind" whoever the winner is, no matter what happens during the campaign, "and that's who we will support and move forward with".