THE UK Government's culture secretary has described the toppling of Boris Johnson as a "ruthless coup."

Nadine Dorries, who has been one of the Prime Minister's most loyal supporters, said her colleagues had made a “huge mistake.”

She also refused to rule out suggestions he could make a comeback. 

“They used to say a week was a long time in politics but a few minutes is a long time in politics these days. Who is going to be foolish enough to predict the future?” Ms Dorries told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

There is a campaign to have Mr Johnson added to the Tory leadership contest ballot paper, which, the organiser claims, has been signed by more than 10,000 party members. 

However, Ms Dorries said she had been explicitly told by the Prime Minister that he did not want that. She said he had told her: “Tell them to stop, it’s not right”

The comments came during a round of interviews ahead of this evening's Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

In an interview with Sky News when she was asked about her views on the former Chancellor and potential next party leader, Rishi Sunak, Ms Dorries said: “It’s not a secret that things happened that shouldn’t have happened and that Boris Johnson was removed via a coup."

She told the BBC that the Prime Minister had been the victim of a “ruthless coup, led largely by Rishi Sunak.”

She rejected the findings of a recent YouGov poll which suggested Tory voters would have deserted the party at the next election had Mr Johnson stayed. 

Victoria Atkins, a former Home Office minister who quit as part of the wave of resignations that toppled Mr Johnson, said she did not agree with Ms Dorries’s comments about a coup, but said that her colleague had “a very exuberant range of language”.

Her interview with Sky was cut short after an altercation with a man off-screen who could be heard arguing with the cameraman. 

A man could be heard shouting: “Touch me then? You can’t because they’ll have you arrested for assault.”

Ms Dorries replied: “He’s not touching you,” before looking around and asking for security.

The man responded: “He can’t touch me, madam, what do you mean he ain’t touching me? He can’t, I’ll have him arrested in five seconds flat.”

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Dorries also seemingly forgot about Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games. She said: “I don’t think we’ve had a sense of occasion, particularly a sense of sporting occasion like this, since the 2012 Olympics. It’s amazing to see for Birmingham, and for the West Midlands, and for sport itself.”

She added: “Most people remember what they were doing in 2012 at the Olympics. They remember that feeling of positivity and the event, the occasion.

“I think the Commonwealth Games are going to leave behind that same sense of occasion and achievement.”