Nadine Dorries refuses to resign officially until
No 10 explains her lack of peerage
Ex-minister responds to Downing Street pressure to
stand down with demand for unredacted details of decision
Aletha Adu
Political correspondent
@alethaadu
Wed 14 Jun 2023
21.33 BST
Nadine
Dorries has said she will not formally resign until after she gets answers from
ministers about why she did not get her peerage, after Downing Street earlier
heaped pressure on her to stand down as soon as possible.
The former
culture secretary said last Friday she would “immediately” step down, after she
was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
The
Conservative party has moved the motion, known as a writ, for byelections in
Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency and Nigel Adams’s Selby and
Ainsty seat as they formally resigned with a letter to the chancellor on
Tuesday. But Dorries is yet to formally tender her resignation to Jeremy Hunt,
frustrating Rishi Sunak’s attempts to prepare to replace her.
In a series
of tweets on Wednesday night, Dorries said: “There is much speculation about
the time at which I become appointed the bailiff of Northstead Manor, as part
of the arcane resignation process when standing down as an MP.
“To put an
end to this … I am awaiting responses to my subject access requests submitted
to Holac [the House of Lords appointment committee], cabinet secretary and the
Cabinet Office, where I will then take the time to properly consider the
information I am provided.
“I have
requested copies of WhatsApps, text messages, all emails and minutes of
meetings both formal and informal with names of senior figures unredacted. My
office continues to function as normal and will of course continue to serve my
constituents of Mid Bedfordshire as we have done for the last 18 yrs until this
time.
“It is
absolutely my intention to resign, but given what I know to be true and the
number of varying and conflicting statements issued by No 10 since the weekend,
this process is now sadly necessary.”
The
government’s website states that: “Information relating to honours nominations
is exempt from the requirement to issue a privacy notice, or to respond to data
subject requests.”
Earlier on
Wednesday, the prime minister’s press secretary said Sunak was “always
disappointed” to see MPs leaving the house, but noted that it was “unusual”
that Dorries had not yet formally resigned. “We are moving on with the two
byelections of Uxbridge and Selby,” she said. “It’s obviously unusual to have
an MP say they will resign with immediate effect and for that not to take
place.
“The prime
minister believes the people of Mid Bedfordshire deserve proper representation
in this house and he looks forward to campaigning for the Conservative
candidate in the byelection.”
Dorries, a
fierce Johnson ally, is inflicting more pain on the Tory party by delaying her
official resignation. With the delay, Sunak could face an autumn byelection
that would ruin his chances of trying to reset the party around its conference.
A senior
Conservative MP has accepted that the Tories are expected to lose all three
byelections. If Dorries hands in her resignation soon, all three byelections
could be held on one day, floated as 20 July. “It will be a complete washout.
Once again, Rishi Sunak’s attempts to reset the party are hampered by another
Boris drama. The prime minister must think big picture now.”
The delay
has left Dorries’s constituents in Mid Bedfordshire in limbo. A number of
Conservative voters have criticised her record, describing her as an “absent MP
who is too focused on writing books”.
The
Conservative party chair, Greg Hands, paid a visit to Dorries’s constituency on
Sunday after at least 130 Liberal Democrat activists descended on the area in
an attempt to win over voters.
The
byelections have been triggered by “political tantrums” over peerages,
according to the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who has said Johnson and Sunak
are damaging the UK’s reputation internationally.
Dorries,
who accused Sunak of “duplicitously and cruelly” blocking her elevation to the
House of Lords, had said she would be standing down with immediate effect.
CCHQ had
been holding byelection drills for at least a month, the Guardian understands,
before Dorries, Johnson and Adams announced their intentions to quit in order
to accept peerages, amid claims Johnson was told as early as March that a peerage
for Dorries would be rejected.
The drills
consisted of outlining what the priority issues within each seat were, and
which ministers should make visits to each constituency and why.
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