Nadine Dorries has formally resigned her parliamentary seat 11 weeks after vowing to go, and launched a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak as he faces another challenging by-election.
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.
She accused the Prime Minister in her resignation letter of betraying Conservative principles and putting her personal safety at risk by whipping up “a public frenzy” against her.
“Zombie Parliament”
The Treasury confirmed it has been notified of Ms Dorries’ intention to step down, and she is expected to be removed from the Commons by being appointed to the historical position of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern on Tuesday.
That will pave the way for a by-election to be held in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency within weeks, causing a headache for Mr Sunak as his party languishes in the polls.
In her blistering statement, published in The Mail on Sunday – for whose sister title the Daily Mail she writes a column – Ms Dorries said Mr Sunak had abandoned “the fundamental principles of Conservatism” and said “history will not judge you kindly”.
“Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened,” she wrote.
“You have no mandate from the people and the Government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?”
Social media reaction
But sympathy for Dorries was in short supply on social media, with one comment summing up the whole farce perfectly:
“Nadine Dorries was the epitome of the disgraced former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s government. Laughably incompetent, entitled without merit, bewilderingly narcissistic, promoted far beyond their aptitude & most of all, unscrupulously nasty.”
Here’s a pick of reaction elsewhere:
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