MPs are in despair at the state of politics - Johnny Mercer only said what others are thinking

I have known Johnny Mercer ever since he first became an MP in 2015 and I remember the very moment I first came across him.

I was sitting in the press gallery in the House of Commons waiting for another recently elected MP - none other than Boris Johnson - to give his maiden speech in the chamber.

I was bored and getting impatient, until a young MP I didn't recognise stood and gave one of the most moving, passionate speeches in the Commons I had ever seen.

It was Captain Johnny Mercer, and his speech recalling the death of both his dear friend Lance Bombardier Chandler on the battlefield in Afghanistan - and the mental breakdown and eventual suicide of another former comrade - left the chamber silent and many of us close to tears.

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It catapulted this now 37-year-old MP onto the national stage, as the former soldier became a poster boy for the 2015 intake.

He has taken that platform and run with it, pressing former prime minister David Cameron for an action plan on war veterans' care and forcing through changes to universal credit.

He also played a pivotal role in getting the government's £60m criminal investigation in British troops in Iraq shut down.

It is a formidable record for a man who before 2015 had never even voted in a general election. The first vote he cast was for himself, when he overturned a 1,600 Labour majority in Plymouth Moor View to become his hometown's MP.

He won that seat through sheer hard work, together with his wife Felicity, knocking on 27,000 doors as he pitched himself as the ultimate political outsider.

Since entering parliament, he has always been an independently-minded MP, interested more in campaigning from the green benches than climbing the greasy pole into government.

Representing a traditionally Labour seat, he has often seemed at odds with the leadership as he spoke out for his constituents rather than just towing the party line.

Outspoken, independent and irreverent, I wasn't surprised that it was Mr Mercer who said publicly this week what so many MPs have been saying privately, or that he used such frank language.

Around the bars and restaurants in Westminster, MPs are in despair over the state of politics and their party.

Many think Mrs May is not the right leader, but cannot see an obvious alternative at this stage of the Brexit negotiations.

Many worry that the issues voters worry about - housing, schools and the NHS - are being buried, as the political class rips itself apart over Brexit.

But they complain about this over a drink or dinner, in private, amongst colleagues or friends. They do not defenestrate the prime minister so publicly, with expletive-laden language.

It has left some colleagues rather dismayed.

One minister told me today that Mr Mercer would do well to remember that "this is a team operation".

Another MP told me: "It's clearly a tough time for the government, but I think many of us are of the view that he's gone too far. It's not helped anyone other than the opposition."

Mr Mercer was today trying to keep a low profile in light of the "s**tshow" he has unleashed at the end of what has been one of Mrs May's most difficult weeks since the snap election.

But he has also stood by what he said and he is right to do so. By voicing his concerns - and finding some public support from fellow MPs like Mr Johnson and Lucy Allen - he is publicly moving beyond Mrs May, with whom he burnt his bridges with long ago anyway.

Now the focus - not just for Mr Mercer but for many other MPs - is to both shore up their constituency base and position themselves for what - and who - comes next.