Bronwyn Bishop has weighed into the Sussan Ley expenses controversy, blaming “socialists” for criticising the embattled MP who stood aside as health minister on Monday pending two inquiries into her taxpayer-funded travel.

Bishop, who exited politics after an expenses scandal for chartering a helicopter from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal party fundraiser, told Sky News on Monday that Ley was being attacked by “people behaving like a pack of dogs”.

Bishop said when she resigned in 2015 as Speaker of the lower house she had done so because Tony Abbott had asked her to, and said her staff had arranged her travel.

“I can only imagine that Sussan Ley’s travel was done in exactly the same way, but I have no personal knowledge of that,” she said. “But I do know that there are socialists out there who want to attack free enterprise and anyone who sticks up for it.

“And I know that socialists, like alcoholics, will blame anyone but themselves. And whereas alcoholics can damage their own family, socialists can destroy the whole country.”

Bishop said that the two inquiries into Ley’s travel expenses should be allowed to run their course before people came to conclusions. The former Speaker said she was sure Ley could survive politically.

“I was within the rules, she was within the rules,” Bishop said despite urging people not to pre-empt the inquiries into Ley’s travel.

Bishop said she was “disappointed” more of Ley’s colleagues had not defended her.

Bishop noted that the acting Labor leader, Penny Wong, had criticised Ley, and said it was “pretty disgusting”, characterising it as “the Labor party sending out a woman to attack another woman”.

“To be blunt, if you look at the socialist side of the Labor party ... blokes have done many more things like that and, frankly, nothing happens.”

Bishop said that politicians had to adjust to such personal attacks in the 24-hour news cycle and the era of the “Twitterati”.

“We hear lots about the pub test, but there are rules and then there’s the pub test ... it depends which pub you’re in too.”

Bishop repeatedly linked criticism of Ley to socialism, describing the political ideology as “always on the march”.

Asked what the expenses controversy had to do with socialism, the former Speaker emphatically said it had “a lot” to do with it, and said that all political critiques were motivated by ideology.

“Socialists will always blame anyone but themselves.”

On Sunday Ley apologised for what she called an “error of judgment” in charging taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast in which she bought a $795,000 apartment.

At a press conference in Albury earlier on Monday, Ley said she was “very confident” the investigation would show she had not broken travel entitlement rules.

She said her decision to pay back funds relating to four claims for Gold Coast travel and accommodation did not amount to an admission she had broken the rules. The decision to step aside had been “mutually agreed” with the prime minister, she said.