IT has been a bad week for Ludlow MP Philip Dunne who has seen two of his former bosses crash out of Government.

Mr Dunne has not commented upon the result of the contest to become leader of the Conservative party, but he was a strong supporter of Jeremy Hunt.

Mr Hunt had been the Ludlow MP’s boss as Secretary of State at the Department for Health where Mr Dunne had been a Minister of State.

Mr Dunne left the Government in a reshuffle undertaken by the former Prime Minister Theresa May.

The Ludlow MP has described Mr Hunt as one of the most capable people that he had worked with.

Mr Dunne organised the support for Mr Hunt amongst Conservative MPs that helped him to make the final two only for him to be well beaten by Boris Johnson getting just over 46,000 votes from Conservative party members compared with the 92,000 polled by Mr Johnson.

Mr Hunt left the Government after it is reported that he refused to accept a demotion from Foreign Secretary to the Ministry of Defence.

Like Mr Dunne, the former Foreign Secretary had supported Remain in the 2016 Referendum but had subsequently said that he believed that the outcome had to be delivered.

Mr Dunne was in Tenbury to greet Mr Hunt when he visited the town on the opening day of the campaign for the leadership of the Conservative party.

Another former boss of Mr Dunne has left the Government.

Philip Hammond, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer, resigned from office before Mr Johnson became Prime Minister because he said that he could not support leaving the European Union with no deal.

Mr Hammond was Secretary of State for Defence at the time when Mr Dunne was Minister for Defence Procurement.

Since leaving Government Mr Dunne has taken up a role on important committees working in the areas of both the environment and rural affairs.