Nadine Dorries has resigned her parliamentary seat 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 British prime minister in her Mid-Bedfordshire constituency this autumn.
Ms Dorries on Saturday said she had submitted her resignation letter to Mr Sunak, publishing the blistering text in The Daily Mail.
In it, she accused Mr Sunak of leading attacks on her resulting in “the police having to visit my home and contact me on a number of occasions due to threats to my person”.
“The clearly orchestrated and almost daily personal attacks demonstrates the pitifully low level your Government has descended to,” the former culture secretary wrote.
She also heavily criticised his record in Government, saying: “Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened.
“You have no mandate from the people and the Government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?”
Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak of abandoning “the fundamental principles of Conservatism” and said “history will not judge you kindly”.
I have submitted my resignation letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, today.
https://t.co/80YwuBm2jnAdvertisement— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) August 26, 2023
The staunch ally of former premier Mr Johnson has angered voters, Opposition MPs and some in her own party by remaining in post since announcing her intention to resign more than 10 weeks ago.
She said she was delaying her exit while she investigated why she was refused a seat in the Lords.
Ms Dorries told Mr Sunak in her letter that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “does not have the winning X factor qualities of a Thatcher, a Blair, or a Boris Johnson, and sadly, Prime Minister, neither do you.
“Your actions have left some 200 or more of my MP colleagues to face an electoral tsunami and the loss of their livelihoods, because in your impatience to become Prime Minister you put your personal ambition above the stability of the country and our economy.
“Bewildered, we look in vain for the grand political vision for the people of this great country to hold on to, that would make all this disruption and subsequent inertia worthwhile, and we find absolutely nothing.”
Downing Street has been contacted for comment.
