A man who was one one of the staunchest critics of Donald Trump on the 2016 campaign trail says that he agrees with the President that Congress should repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan if needed.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz made the statement on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, during a busy morning for the Republican who hit several Sunday programmes to talk about health care policy.

“If we can't get this done right now, I agree with the President,” Mr Cruz, who has emerged as one of the leading negotiators during the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obama care, said. “Then let's honour the promise on repeal and spend more time to get it done.”

Republican efforts in the Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare seem to have become increasingly imperilled after the party spent seven years decrying the signature health bill pushed for and passed by former President Barack Obama. Mr Cruz’s comments came just a day before Congress is set to reconvene with their sites on cobbling together a deal — but Republican senators appear to be increasingly wary of the potential impact that proposed replacement bills could have on rural America.

There have been at least 10 Republican defectors to the plan, after North Dakota Senator John Hoeven signalled last week that he couldn’t support the current version of the bill.

Senators with large rural populations have expressed concern that hospitals — which often are major sources of jobs in those types of communities — would be negatively impacted by the healthcare bill.

Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Show all 3 1 /3 Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama.jpg Martin Wolske, 49 and his family, Illinois. His son Eric, 23 (bottom right, dark hair) was recently badly injured in a motorcycle accident. Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama2.jpg Tracy Russo, 31, Washington DC Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama3.jpg Kevin McCollum, 41, and his wife Melissa, 40, Texas