Former senior aides to Mitt Romney have hit back at the 'craven hypocrites' in the Republican party who just days before the election were clamouring for jobs in a Romney administration and are now belittling him.

'I'm sure Governor Romney is finding out now who his real friends are,' a former adviser told MailOnline. 

'There were one or two well-known figures who were late committing to support him, were the most eager to curry favour when it looked like we would win and are now out there trashing the governor.

'In politics, when you win you are a genius and when you lose everyone calls you an idiot. But to see the way certain craven hypocrites are acting right now really sticks in the craw.'