The Daily Mail has published the first serialised extracts from Nadine Dorries’ book on Boris Johnson – and they’re as bonkers as you’d expect.
The former culture secretary has chronicled what she describes as the “political assassination” of her ex-boss in a new book which she has dramatically titled “The Plot”.
Among the many astonishing claims are allegations levelled against a powerful Tory known as ‘Dr No’, who she says once had an ex-girlfriend’s little brother’s pet rabbit “chopped into four and nailed to the front door of the family home to greet him when he got home from school, in true Mafia style”.
She said the “shadowy Tory” figure, who has been left anonymous, is central to a cabal of figures who have been secretly controlling the Conservative Party for more than two decades.
Arson
‘Dr No’, Dorries alleges, was also once on remand in prison for alleged arson.
She writes: “Each time a new party chairman or a treasurer came along and looked at the books in Central Office, they asked ‘Who are these people we are paying an extraordinary amount of money to as employees of CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters]? Who is this one, Dr No? He never comes in and why has no one ever met him? I’ve never met him. Has anyone ever met him?”
Dorries says: “For a man with a secretive past, he appears to have trouble keeping clear of the authorities. Dr No loves violence too. If ever there is a demonstration in Downing Street and he’s in there, he will slip out of the back door into the street and he seeks out the violent clashes. He doesn’t take part, he just cruises around and watches.
“It really is quite remarkable, over 40 years, only a handful of people who have been in No 10 could point him out to you. If a staffer ever asked, ‘Who is that man?’ as he shuffled past, there would be no answer forthcoming.”
“Someone who has had the misfortune to run up against him said to me ‘He’s just a very bad man with an evil mind, and in politics every prime minister needs a man just like him by his side’.”
“Dirty dossiers”
Giving more details about the alleged arson, she writes: “Dr No was said to have tried to set fire to a house when people were sleeping in their bed. There was a whole family in the house at the time, including a child.”
Dorries also claims that Dr No uses ‘dirty dossiers’ as ‘one of his favourite modes of operation’.
She quotes a source as saying that Dr No deployed the tactic against Tory former prime minister Liz Truss, comprising “mostly sexual, disgusting and untrue, seriously made-up nasty stuff” which was shown to Rishi Sunak.
“To his credit, Rishi told him not to use it because it would reflect badly on him. But Dr No ignored him, because Rishi wasn’t in charge, they were,” she writes. “Then, when the dossier was considered so appalling that the Press didn’t use it, it was texted to a journalist that ‘we’re keeping this ammunition for use at a later date”.
Related: Nadine Dorries claims Government trying to block her book on Johnson’s downfall