Boris Johnson's mega fan has stood down
Tory MP Nadine Dorries has announced her resignation. Dorries tweeted late this afternoon she will be standing down as an MP ‘with immediate effect’.
She said: “I have today informed the chief whip that I am standing down as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, with immediate effect. It has been an honour to serve as the MP for such a wonderful constituency but it is now time for someone younger to take the reins.’
Dorries has been expected to be given a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours. Johnson’s list of honours reportedly consists of as many as 50 people set to be elevated to the House of Lords. Parliamentary rules prohibit anyone from sitting in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
According to reports, Johnson’s resignation honours have been approved by prime minister Rishi Sunak and are set to be announced later today.
Dorries was notorious for being a Boris Johnson mega fan, being one of his most loyal supporters in the Conservative Party, and a regular cheerleader for the former prime minister in the media. She has also become known for her absenteeism in parliament, with her rarely speaking in the House of Commons since Johnson’s departure from Downing Street.
Despite being a prominent Tory MP for over a decade, she only held cabinet office once, serving as culture secretary under Johnson. In that time, she gained a reputation for having little grasp of her brief, illustrated through her repeated gaffes about Channel 4, a media outlet she was seeking to privatise.
Following her resignation, a by-election will take place in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency. In the 2019 general election, the Tories held the seat with a 22,000 majority. However, with Labour 20 points ahead of the Tories in the national polls, Keir Starmer’s party will be hopeful of pulling off a sensational by-election victory.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Simon Dawson / Number 10 Downing Street – Creative Commons
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