Nicky Morgan has vowed to continue asking questions and scrutinising the policies of Theresa May's government from the backbenches after she was sacked on the Prime Minister's first day in the job.
The former education secretary has not disguised her opposition to many of May's plans including moves towards a hard Brexit and allowing for more grammar schools.
Speaking at Spring Harvest, an evangelical Christian festival in Somerset, Morgan accused Jeremy Corbyn's Labour of failing to provide a real opposition.
'That is why a number of us on the backbenches think we have got to do that role of scrutinising government policy, because that is what democracy is all about,' she said.
An avowed Remainer in the European Union referendum campaign, Morgan spoke of deep tensions that have emerged since Brexit and her shock at the outcome.
'Friendships have been put under immense strain,' she said. 'The country we thought we knew is not the one we now have.
'It makes me think perhaps I have not been listening,' she added.
'I cannot remember a time when this country was as divided as it is now,' she told the conference which is looking at how to disagree well and build unity.
'We seemed to be slightly strained as a country in dealing with those tensions.'
With the prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum and two years of Brexit talks to negotiate Morgan went on to say the church was crucial to healing tensions and divisions in the UK.
'It is about talking, it is about listening and it is about relationship,' she said.
The spring conference attracts thousands each year with the Archbishop of Canterbury attending on Sunday to preach on healing 'healing profound disagreements'.
Opening the 2017 programme Baptist pastor Malcolm Duncan preached on the theme of 'one for all' - Christian unity – and lamented the divisions within the Church today.
'We are stronger when we stand together,' Duncan said. He is concerned about the ongoing fighting, dissent and disagreement in the Church.
He went on: 'We split over unimportant things...in ways that are so unattractive to the world.' But, he said, 'There is more that unites us than divides us...Don't let your denomination define you.'
