FOREST MP Mark Harper says he is “looking forward to continuing to serve” his constituents from the backbenches following Liz Truss’s election as Tory leader and Prime Minister last week.

Former Conservative Chief Whip Mr Harper was a strong backer of former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative party leader and PM this summer.

But with Ms Truss having been elected by Tory members last Monday (September 5), with 57.4 per cent of the vote compared to Sunak’s 42.6, Mr Harper remains on the Commons’ backbenches – a position from which he has been a fierce critic of Boris Johnson’s government over the last two years.

Mr Sunak was favoured among MPs as the next Tory leader, having received the most votes in all of the earlier rounds, but lost out to Ms Truss in the members’ vote by what was in the end considered to be a smaller margin than expected.

On the day of the election result on September 5, Mr Harper tweeted: “Congratulations to Liz Truss as she takes over the leadership of the Conservatives – a Party I love and have been a member of since I was 17.

“Liz must now be given the chance to tackle the challenges we face and do it in a way that brings our Party and our country together.”

All but one of Gloucestershire’s MPs backed Mr Sunak in the race.

Jesse Norman, the MP for neighbouring South Herefordshire, who backed Ms Truss, was last week appointed as a foreign office minister, working under new foreign secretary James Cleverly.

Monmouth MP David Davies had also backed Ms Truss for the win.

After the new PM appointed her Cabinet on Wednesday (September 7), Mr Harper tweeted: “I wish the new Prime Minister and her Cabinet well.

“A Conservative Prime Minister will always be better than a Labour one.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to serve my Forest of Dean constituents, and my country, from the backbenches by holding our new Government to account.”

And the MP was “back to it” on the floor of the House of Commons last week, challenging Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over his criticism of the PM’s new energy plan.

In her first act as Prime Minister, Ms Truss announced that the government will cap household energy bills at £2,500 for two years.

But opposition MPs questioned whether the scheme goes far enough, with bills still set to rise to more than double what they were last winter.