SOUTH Hams MP Dr Sarah Wollaston has said that she will not be silenced on social media after being ordered to end critical comments.

Dr Wollaston was among a group of Conservative MPs told by David Cameron's strategy chief Lynton Crosby to decide if they were 'commentators or participants'.

The MP tweeted on Sunday: 'Inner circle still look far too posh, male and white and Cameron is running out of time to fix it.'

She later added: 'I am Cameron loyalist but he needs to change his inner circle which just seems to be telling him what he wants to hear.'

Dr Wollaston said that she felt 'uncomfortable' about the comments made by Mr Crosby, saying that she felt it was part of her job as a backbench MP to commentate 'on behalf of her constituents'.

On Wednesday, she tweeted: 'I cannot 'participate' without the freedom to 'comment', even if that is sometimes inconvenient to the Executive.'

Mr Crosby urged Conservative MPs at a meeting on Tuesday evening to focus on selling the party's message.

Dr Wollaston told the BBC that she didn't get into politics to be 'lobby fodder' and reserved the right to comment on policy, or the party leadership, when she felt it was warranted.

She told the BBC that her comment about David Cameron's inner circle was 'making a valid point about how the public view us and whether or not we need to make the cabinet sound more like modern Britain'.

Michael Fabricant and Peter Bone were two other Tory MPs addressed at the meeting for criticising the party leadership on Twitter.

You can follow Dr Wollaston on Twitter @drwollastonmp.