Rishi Sunak poked fun of his long-term critic Nadine Dorries on Wednesday, even though the former culture secretary is no longer an MP.
Speaking during PMQs, the prime minister welcomed Alistair Strathern - the new Labour MP in Dorries’ old seat of Mid Bedfordshire - to the Commons.
“I suspect the new member for Mid Beds might actually support me a little bit more than the last one,” Sunak told MPs.
Strathern overturned a huge 24,664 majority last week to snatch Dorries’ old seat from the Tories last week.
Dorries quit parliament in August after her hopes of getting a seat in the Lords as part of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list were dashed.
The former culture secretary accused the prime minister of blocking her peerage - something No.10 denies.
There is no love lost between Sunak and Dorries and the pair have exchanged barbed words in public ever since he took over in No.10.
The former culture secretary recently warned the PM is leading the Conservatives to defeat at the election having “squandered the goodwill of the nation”.
Dorries has said she is so unhappy with Sunak as party leader she might not even vote Tory at the general election.
For his part, Sunak criticised Dorries for refusing to resign immediately after announcing her intention to quit, dragging out the by-election.