Nadine Dorries Reveals Why She Decided To Step Down With 'Immediate Effect'
Nadine Dorries has been reported to the Commons Speaker by the UK’s most senior civil servant over claims she sent “forceful” messages about why she did not receive her peerage on Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case told MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that he had “flagged” communications from the Johnson loyalist to senior officials to both Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Tory chief whip Simon Hart.
During the session yesterday, Tory MP and committee chairman William Wragg asked Mr Case if he was aware of “any rather forceful communications” sent by Ms Dorries “to senior civil servants” about potentially using “the platform of the Commons and indeed her own television programme to get to the bottom of why she hadn’t been given a peerage?”
Mr Case said: “Yes, was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the chief whip and Speaker of the House.”
The top civil servant added that he had taken legal advice on whether a law designed to prevent interference in the honours system may have been breached.
But a friend of the former culture secretary denied claims of “forceful” messages.
The source told The Times: “It is complete nonsense. She was probably upset on the day at the way she had been treated but she’s not aggressive. She has been very badly served.”
Ms Dorries has accused Rishi Sunak of blocking her peerage, which Downing Street has denied.
She announced her resignation as an MP last month after her name did not appear on Boris Johnson’s honours list.
But she is yet to formally stand down from her Mid Bedfordshire seat as she seeks answers over the missing peerage.
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It comes as it was confirmed that Ms Dorries has written a book titled The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson.
It will be published days before the Tory Party conference in September in a headache for Mr Sunak.
The former prime minister’s staunch ally claims to have uncovered a “fault line” within the Conservative Party through conversations with Cabinet ministers, civil servants and party officials which form the basis of her account.
The book, for which Ms Dorries received £20,500 as a partial advance from HarperCollins, is billed as the story of “treachery and deceit at the heart of the Westminster machine”.
It is set to hit the stands on September 28 – just three days before Conservatives convene for the annual party conference on October 1.
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