The Liberal Democrats have committed to minimum service levels for MPs as it ramps up campaigning in the seat Nadine Dorries is about to vacate.
Dorries resigned her parliamentary seat on Saturday with a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak, accusing him of “demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy” against her.
The Tory former minister had announced in June that she would quit the Commons with “immediate effect” in protest at not getting a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, but failed to follow through until now.
Her exit triggers a challenging by-election for the Prime Minister in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency this autumn.
Labour says it is confident it “can win” Dorries’ seat, with Anneliese Dodds saying the people of Mid Bedfordshire now have the chance to vote for “change” as she hit the campaign trail with Labour’s candidate Alistair Strathern on Sunday.
“Many people would have said it would be impossible for Labour to overturn a 25,000 Conservative majority, but we know the only poll that’s taken place in this constituency shows that Labour can win here,” she told activists and reporters.
“We’ve got a brilliant candidate in Alistair, someone who will definitely, definitely be the hardest working MP this constituency has ever had.”
Dodds earlier said Labour, which came second at the 2019 general election with 14,000 votes, would need an “absolutely enormous change” to gain the traditionally safe Tory seat.
“However, Labour did win in Selby and Ainsty,” she told Times Radio.
Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said he is “increasingly confident we have a really good chance” of nabbing Ms Dorries’ seat.
He is hoping his party can pull off another shock victory after recently flipping a 19,000 Conservative majority in Somerton and Frome.
Speaking to Byline Times, the party’s candidate, Emma Holland-Lindsay, said: “My absolute number one top focus is to be a hard working strong voice. I want to be a full time MP, standing up for local people locally, out and about meeting communities, listening to local residents’ concerns and standing up for them in Westminster. So I won’t be taking any other jobs.”
Asked whether she would take any paid TV slots – such as hosting news or current affairs programmes, she said: “No, because I should be a strong voice, which we haven’t had for so long in this area.
“Residents are really concerned whether they can’t get a GP appointment. People are waiting up to five weeks for a routine GP appointment. Or they’re concerned about their shopping bill going up every time they go to the supermarket. So of course, my absolute number one job is to stand up for those people in Westminster and locally.”
Asked if minimum service levels were needed for members of parliament, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told Byline Times he “certainly wouldn’t be against them for myself and for Lib Dem MPs.”
“The issue is making sure MPs are more accountable. And to my mind, the way you do that is you change the electoral system. The problem with first past the post is you get seats where there are large Conservative and Labour majorities, and it is very difficult to remove them at a general election,” the former coalition minister said.
He added: “The best way to make sure MPs are held to account when politicians are forced to listen to their public is to have electoral reform.”
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