Our party’s calls for Nadine Dorries to do something – anything – have been getting more strident.
To recap, on Friday 9th June she said she was resigning from Parliament, with immediate effect, mainly in a huff because her promised peerage in Johnson’s Resignation Honours had been blocked. But then she didn’t – resign, that is. Instead she said that she was waiting for an explanation of why her appointment was blocked.
In the meantime there are claims that she has been absent both from the House and from her constituency of Mid Bedfordshire. Dorries herself claimed yesterday that she is ‘working daily’, but the use of quote marks in the media suggest otherwise.
On Monday Daisy Cooper said:
Nadine Dorries’s actions are a gross insult to the people of Mid-Bedfordshire. Why on earth should their taxpayers’ money fund an MP who hasn’t worked in months? If Nadine Dorries had a shred of integrity left, she would stand down now and give local people a chance to elect a new MP who will actually do the job.
It is disgraceful that she continues to have the Conservative Party whip. Clearly Rishi Sunak thinks Nadine Dorries’s actions are still worthy of being a Conservative MP.
Local people are fed up with being taken for granted by this out of touch Conservative party.
The rhetoric was ramped up yesterday, when Ed Davey visited Flitwick, in the constituency and he referred to her as a “dosser”.
Rishi Sunak should have the guts to sack Nadine Dorries as a Conservative MP. His silence on this whole sorry saga has become deafening.
Yet again, he is a Prime Minister too weak to control the chaotic Conservative party.
People in Mid Bedfordshire are fed up with being so badly let down by an absentee MP and an out-of-touch Conservative government.
Families are struggling to see a GP and seeing their mortgages go through the roof, but Dorries is nowhere to be seen.
Every day Sunak fails to take action just confirms that this Conservative government is totally out of touch and taking people for granted.
You might draw the conclusion that we are getting ready for a by-election!
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Protect your children from the National Elf Service
Is the polling changing on immigration? - The Week in Polls
Highland Tigers
Blackness Road of old #dundeewestend
Geoffrey Payne
Tim Rogers
10 Comments
Mary Reid is right – Nadine Dorries should do something. But, on the other hand, by not doing anything she is doing more damage to the Conservative Party than anyone else. So maybe she should be left alone to get on with it? As a result of her TV appearances she is much better known than most other Tory MPs, so her (in)actions are having an impact on the public out of all proportion to her achievements. I look forward to more reports of Ed Davey and the team campaigning in Mid Bedfordshire over the next few months.
Personally, I think she will resign during the Tory Party conference at whatever time she thinks will do the most damage.
Expecting Nadine Dorries to do anything is like waiting for Godot. It is my opinion that she won’t resign and will hang on till the next election. Why should she give the LibDems a by-election opportunity? She has no shame so there is no way of pressuring her to stand down. Not appearing in the House of Commons is not of itself grounds for expulsion as countless Sinn Fein MPs will attest, although a six month rule similar to that which applies to councillors would be welcome and should be party policy.
In fact Dorries may well be deliberately suggesting a by-election to cause our party to spend countless thousands on acting as if a by-election is imminent.
Let’s hope it’s money well spent that will enable the LibDems to win at the next general election.
Oh, and by the way, if the party wants non car owners to come to Mid Beds, then it has to start offering transport. For example: To travel from Cambridge to Flitwick requires a journey into London Kings Cross, a tube to Euston and then another train to Flitwick. A 2.5 hours journey each way before anyone knocks on a door or delivers a leaflet. Not an attractive proposition. Offering lifts from Hitchin or Stevenage might encourage people to come as both of these are easily accessible by train.
Mick Taylor makes some very interesting points (especially about transport) but I wonder if perhaps, nowadays, Nadine Dorries might not hate the Conservative Party even more than she hates the Liberal Democrats? No way of telling, I suppose, but she seems to be more animated against the people refusing to give her a peerage than the people campaigning in her (former?) constituency.
You are being over-complicated.
Nadine likes the salary.
Are there echoes of St Albans here? Irrespective of her motives, Nadine Dorries is not serving the people of her constituency, and the LibDem candidate is acting as an MP in waiting. Anne Main did the same, and look who we got in her place! Well done, Daisy!
When Sinn Fein MPs are elected, their constituents know that they will not take up their seats. I assume that the electors of Mid-Beds expected Nadine Dorries to attend Parliament and vote.
I suggest that we all write to our MPs demanding that Ms Dorries is removed from Parliament as a matter of urgency.
As others have pointed out, Dorries refusing to attend Parliament is the same as SF MPs refusing to attend it.
It would be perfectly reasonable to demand a change in rules for the HoC so that any MP who refuses (or has refused) to attend on a regular basis and/or make some minimum level of contribution at committee level should automatically forfeit their seats. And a commitment to abiding by the minimum level of attendance / contribution rule should be mandatory for anyone standing for election in any constituency.
@Paul R “It would be perfectly reasonable to demand a change in rules for the HoC so that any MP who refuses (or has refused) to attend on a regular basis and/or make some minimum level of contribution at committee level should automatically forfeit their seats.”
That would be a good opportunity to scrap the oath/affirmation of allegiance to the monarch so that republicans of all stripes can make some sort of meaningful pledge to their constituents and the country instead and not start their parliamentary career with a fib!
Don’t MPs sign something when they are admitted to the HOC outling their responsibilities, duties and entitlements? If not why not? It should include a clause that if found in infringement of any of these they will be investigated and the penalities might include fines, exclusion or a by-election for the most serious offences. This would remove it from the PM or other’s duties.