Politics

Dories told to hand back £84k MP salary after being absent from Commons for 8 months

Nadine Dorries has been told to hand back her £84,000 MP salary following a prolonged absence from the House of Commons.

The MP for Mid Bedfordshire has been accused of spending too much time trying to become a TV star than representing her constituents after she took up a new role with TalkTV.

The last time she spoke in the Commons was on July 7th – the day Boris Johnson announced he would resign as prime minister.

She was still culture secretary at the time.

Since then she has been largely absent, voting on only two days in November which fell on either side of each other.

Despite her absence, Dorries is still entitled to her MP salary of £84,000.

A Tory source told the Mirror: “Nadine’s constituents in Mid Bedfordshire might wonder if she cares more about her new TV show and stumping for past prime ministers than she does representing their views in Parliament.

“If she doesn’t want to do her day job, she should hand back her MP salary and let someone else do it.”

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper added “Nadine Dorries is taking the people of Mid Beds for granted. This is a farce.

“In the middle of a cost of living crisis, local people need MPs to help them. Instead, Nadine Dorries is too busy stuffing her pockets in TV studios. Rishi Sunak should have the guts to remove the Conservative whip.”

Related: Nadine Dorries’ resignation announcement gets the Sooz Kempner treatment

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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