Ex-Tory MP has savaged the Tories’ cruel welfare policies in a speech explaing why she decided to quit the party and join ‘The Independent Group’.

She told journalists at a press conference: “I believed that under David Cameron and his Big Society the party, like me, was ambitious for the country.

“It was challenging the “Nasty Party” image and proving that we could, in fact, be a party of both competence and compassion.

“So why so often, too often, in the last three years have I found myself going over the top fighting for benevolence in our welfare system?

“The Department for Work and Pensions has had six Secretary’s of State in the last three years…. SIX!

“You wouldn’t run a business like that and expect it to succeed.

“So how can it possibly be acceptable when you are completely redesigning our welfare safety net?

“Particulary when that safety net is so vital when we are at our lowest and when we need it most.

“Because those who rely on the [safety] net are people… and not numbers.

“I shouldn’t have to feel like the only option left open to me is to take a camera crew across the country to shine a devastating spotlight on poverty.

“It shouldn’t be this hard.

“I believed I was part of a party who worker collaborately, welcomed knowledge and had the empathy to feel.

“But I have slowly but surely realised that I am not.

“I can no longer represent a government and party who can’t open their eyes to the suffering endured by the most vulnerable in society.

“Suffering we have deepened whilst having the power to fix.”