Newt Gingrich slams Cruz 'campaign reboot' and says Republicans not backing Trump help Clinton

Newt Gingrich has criticised Ted Cruz's comments about restarting his election campaign, stating that anyone not supporting Donald Trump was 'helping Hillary Clinton'. Cruz, who had the highest number of delegates after Donald Trump but dropped out after a poor showing at the Indiana primary, suggested he would be open to reigniting his campaign if he polled well in Nebraska – which he did not.

As Trump took all 36 delegates at the primary, rumours of Cruz restarting his campaign were quashed. However, he told radio host Glenn Beck: "Let's be very clear. If there is a path to victory, we launched this campaign intending to win", comments that have made waves within the Republican Party.

Gingrich said during a radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis that it was time to get behind the presumptive presidential nominee or risk seeing a Democrat president, also explaining why he openly criticised House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan for not endorsing Trump.

"I don't know what Ted was thinking," Gingrich said. "It's pretty clear that this is over. Trump is the nominee. That's why I disagreed with Paul Ryan. I thought that the moment to say, 'OK, we have the leader of the team, let's pull the team together, let's go beat Hillary,' has arrived."

Rumoured to be under consideration for Trump's vice-president, Gingrich has become an increasingly vocal supporter of the GOP presumptive presidential nominee in the past few weeks.

"You're either for Hillary Clinton or you're for Donald Trump. If you're not for Donald Trump, you are functionally helping Hillary Clinton. I think it's just that straightforward," Gingrich added.