A Tory defector today said she wants to DESTROY the Conservative Party.

Heidi Allen claimed if the new-look Independent Group does its job right, "there won’t be a Tory party to go back to".

Letting loose after she quit in a trio of Tory resignations today, she savaged Downing Street for presiding over a "dysfunctional" party that has left ex-colleagues at their wits’ end.

She claimed one despairing Tory has messaged her: "Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me with them".

Ms Allen made the bombshell comments at a press briefing in Parliament tonight after becoming the 11th MP to join the group, along with Tory Remainers Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston.

Asked if she would return to her old party she replied: "I can’t imagine it. I just can’t.

"Not least because if we do our jobs right, there won’t be a Tory party to go back to.

"We’re about creating something better that is bang smack in the centre ground of British politics that people out there, I am convinced, we are convinced, want.

"This is about the future. This is not about going back."

She blasted Downing Street for an "absolutely staggering" failure to reach out before she quit.

She said: "The Prime Minister must know she has a very small – purchased – majority. So we should be important."

She claimed colleagues had "waved and winked" and "blown kisses" and messaged her saying bleakly: "Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me with them".

But of Tory HQ she blasted: "This is physical evidence of how dysfunctional the party has become.

"That we’re not protected from the bottom up in terms of entryism or yellow jackets yelling at us on the street.

"And we’re not protected from the top down.

"The organisation is dysfunctional, it’s not a team any more. It doesn’t wrap itself around us."

The comments came in a lengthy press conference by Ms Allen and ex-Labour MP Chris Leslie.

During the Q&A, Ms Allen openly admitted "we are not ready" to face a string of by-elections because they would "crush us".

And Mr Leslie indicated the Independent Group would NOT back Labour in a vote of no confidence against the government.

He said: "We don’t believe right now, at this moment of national crisis, a general election would be right for the country."

The MPs admitted they’re going to have their rows after Anna Soubry heaped praise on cruel Tory austerity.

"If you’re searching for disagreements you will be able to find them," Chris Leslie told the group of journalists.

Heidi Allen added MPs would not be sent to a "brainwashing conference" to make sure they agree.

But they said more could join, with Ms Allen saying: "There are sympathetic ministers at all levels."

Asked if Tory Phillip Lee will join the group, Heidi Allen replied: "What about Justine [Greening]? What about everybody else?"

Ms Allen said the ‘Three Amigos’ of the Tories did not know the seven Labour MPs were quitting on Monday before they did.

Afterwards "we then thought right, okay, when?" she said.

Meanwhile Mr Leslie blasted the big parties as a "cartel" and said "the Labour Party sadly look as though they are taking a very negative approach to what’s happening."

Even though the group is pro-EU, Mr Leslie suggested it may accept MPs who don’t support a second referendum.

And he tried to dismiss claims he could work with the Lib Dems.

"We’re not joining the Lib Dems. We believe there are problems with all the parties… They have got a clear trust issue," he said.

He also claimed the group had earned "thousands" of small money backers already and would declare its funding "in due course".

Despite being backed by an opaque private company, he said, "Obviously the Electoral Commission have rules for political parties.

"While we’re not a political party yet we’ve set out to say we will map over the rules on parties as though we were a political party and comply with the full disclosures of that."

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The Independent Group

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