Tag Archives: nadine dorries

Caron Lindsay

Nadine finally quits – how you can help Lib Dem Emma Holland-Lindsay win Mid Beds

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 27th August 2023 - 10:21 am

Nadine Dorries first announced her intention to resign her parliamentary seat “with immediate effect” on 9th June. And then she decides to actually do it 79 days later while I’m out celebrating my 35th wedding anniversary, returning to the scene of the crime for an absolutely delicious meal and some even lovelier cocktails.

So this means that the formal starting gun will likely be fired on the by-election campaign to replace her when Parliament resumes on 4th September. However, the Lib Dem campaign to get our brilliant candidate Emma Holland-Lindsay elected has been going on since the day after Nadine made her original announcement. Within hours, campaigners were gathering and swapping leaflets in supermarket car parks and the like.

If, as expected, the by-election takes place on 5th October, the publication of Nadine Dorries book about the downfall of Boris Johnson on 28 September, and any serialisation before, is bound to grab some headlines.

Ed Davey was questioned on whether the Lib Dems were the challengers on the For the Many Live podcast with Iain Dale and Jacqui Smith in Edinburgh:

He said he was feeling good about the prospect of a Mid Beds by-election as Labour party members there had told them they were voting for us. He said he wasn’t sure that we were going to win, but we were definitely the challengers. There was no way, he said, that people in the predominantly rural constituency were going to vote Labour to get the Tories out. He accused Nadine Dorries of an abuse of Parliament for her behaviour.

Last night, Ed said:

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Mary Reid

Update on Nadine Dorries

By Mary Reid | Fri 25th August 2023 - 1:47 pm

Yesterday I reported comments made by Daisy Cooper and Ed Davey about Nadine Dorries’ reluctance to carry out her promise to stand down from Parliament “with immediate effect” (Nadine Dorries should do something).

It seems that our MPs are now planning to table a Bill as soon as Parliament returns on 4th September to suspend Nadine Dorries for 10 days if she doesn’t appear in Parliament by 14th September.

If the motion is passed, and a suspension results, then this would trigger a recall petition in the Constituency and allow her constituents to force a by-election.

Daisy Copper tells us:

For months Nadine Dorries has treated the people of Mid Bedfordshire with contempt and taken them for granted.

As thousands of people struggle to get a GP appointment and face steep hikes to their mortgages, Nadine Dorries continues to be missing in action. What’s worse is that the Conservatives just don’t seem to care that they’re letting people down.

We need an end to this sorry saga, once and for all. Nadine Dorries must resign, if not then this Government must do the right thing and force her to. Every day that Rishi Sunak sits on his hands the people across Mid Bedfordshire are being failed.

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Mary Reid

Nadine Dorries should do something

By Mary Reid | Thu 24th August 2023 - 9:10 am

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”.

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Tony Koutsoumbos

Opinion: Come back Nad! A layman’s guide to public engagement

By Tony Koutsoumbos | Tue 27th November 2012 - 3:52 pm

Nadine Dorries has been unfairly judged. In fact she should not be judged at all. We have been so busy arguing whether she has brought herself and Parliament into disrepute by flying out to Australia to share a platform with B-list celebrities and eat Marsupial genitalia, that we seem to have forgotten all about the original question she was trying to answer: how can MPs and indeed all public officials of every office, from mayors to parish councillors, reach out and re-connect with the public?

My answer …

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg does PMQs in style

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th November 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg did Prime Minister’s Questions today while David Cameron is schmoozing his way round the Middle East. He was so assured, confident and natural and spoke completely without notes. He even answered the question he was given and not the one he wanted to answer, too. He made David Cameron look like a complete amateur, to be honest, and Gordon Brown, too.

My Liberal Democrat Voice colleague Nick Thornsby reminded us on Twitter this morning that four years ago, two days after Barack Obama was elected the first time round, Nick, then a humble third party leader, questioned PM Gordon Brown, who put him down quite snidily. And the subject of his questions? Taxing the wealthy and cutting taxes for the poorest. Nothing if not consistent. Have a look here.

 

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Mark Pack

Theresa May succeeds where Nadine Dorries failed

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd October 2011 - 5:36 pm

As I quipped during Liberal Democrat conference, one of the most popular Conservative MPs with party activists is Nadine Dorries, courtesy of that question at PMQs.

Today Home Secretary Theresa May has shown rather more political skill in making a very similar point. Talking to the Sunday Telegraph, she’s said that “personally” she would “like” to see the Human Rights Act go.

It’s a skilful move because by using that phrasing she isn’t triggering any stories of coalition meltdown. Liberal Democrats saying the Human Rights Act won’t go and Tories saying they personally would like it to go aren’t contradictory …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Nadine Dorries leaves the PM speechless

By Paul Walter | Wed 7th September 2011 - 1:23 pm

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Posted in News and PMQs | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

“Nick Clegg to vote against abortion counselling law”

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th September 2011 - 11:03 pm

So reports The Guardian:

Nick Clegg is on Wednesday planning to vote against a cross-party amendment, tabled by socially conservative MPs, that would strip abortion providers of their counselling role.

In the most high-profile parliamentary debate on abortion since the general election, the deputy prime minister will lead a series of Liberal Democrat and Tory ministers into the no lobby. They will be joined by most Labour MPs in voting against the amendment tabled by Nadine Dorries, a Tory backbencher, and Frank Field, Labour’s former welfare reform minister…

A rival amendment, tabled by the Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert, has also been accepted

…

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Mark Pack

I guess Nadine Dorries didn’t really notice the bill she repeatedly voted on

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 8:50 am

On her blog the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries recently wrote,

For those who may not know – you become a ‘prospective candidate’ from the moment of selection until the legal election period begins which is when you transfer to being a candidate. You cannot be a candidate from selection because if you do call yourself such, the period of time you incurr election expenses kick in. Parliamentary candidates are Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, PPCs from selection until the election is called and then become Parliamentary Candidate from that time for the period of the short campaign. I imagine the same law applies to

…

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Mark Pack

Nadine Dorries has me confused

By Mark Pack | Sun 24th October 2010 - 12:52 pm

Exhibit A: “I would also like to state that every word written on my blog is absolutely true.”

Exhibit B: “My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another.”

PS Nadine, on the off chance you are reading this – don’t blame Twitter for my sceptical views of your attitude towards accuracy. Blame the fact that you and your office declined to …

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Mark Pack

Parliamentarians in the news

By Mark Pack | Fri 22nd October 2010 - 2:25 pm
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Mark Pack

Nadine Dorries: expense claims questioned in Sunday Times

By Mark Pack | Sun 9th May 2010 - 8:50 am

Welcome shortly to the new Parliament, where not everything has changed:

NADINE DORRIES, the Conservative MP, faces the first expenses complaint of the new parliament after a row about a £10,000 claim she paid to a friend’s company.

Her former Commons researcher, Peter Hand, is writing to John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, questioning whether the claim can be justified.

The complaint will undermine hopes that the expenses controversy can be consigned to the last parliament.

Dorries, who last week retained her mid-Bedfordshire seat, claimed the money for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, and consultancy services, but

…

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Mark Pack

Help Linda Jack defeat Nadine Dorries

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th April 2010 - 3:20 pm

Linda Jack needs at 12% swing to beat Nadine Dorries in Mid-Bedfordshire. That’s a tough target – but by no means impossible (see seats such as Hornsey & Wood Green last time), especially given the party’s poll boost in recent days. To turn the possibility into reality Linda’s campaign needs more funds to help run an even more intensive grassroots effort in the second half of the campaign:

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Linda aims to kick Nads out of Parliament

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th April 2010 - 8:30 pm

LDV readers may have already seen Lib Dem candidate Linda Jack‘s advertising campaign video aimed at raising funds to unseat controversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries in Mid-Bedfordshire. Launched today, Linda’s ad will appear on leading political blogs and web sites to raise funds, as well as those searching for Nadine Dorries on Google.

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Posted in General Election, Online politics and YouTube | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Daily View 2×2: 17 January 2010

By Mark Pack | Sun 17th January 2010 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for a trip down political memory lane, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Consideration of new Iran sanctions has begun

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Helen Duffett

Daily View 2×2: 30 October 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th October 2009 - 10:54 am

2 Big Stories

Ministry of Justice plans to cut polling day costs

Thousands of polling stations would be closed and voting hours reduced under a plan to cut the cost of elections.

Other proposals include cutting staff, replacing polling cards with e-mail requests, increasing candidates’ deposits, fixed-term parliaments and reducing security at election counts.

The options, outlined in a working paper drawn up by the Ministry of Justice for the Treasury, are designed to save up to £65 million. They were condemned last night as a “threat to democracy that would save peanuts”. (Times)

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Stephen Tall

To be fair …

By Stephen Tall | Tue 29th September 2009 - 9:40 am

I made clear my view on Sunday that the BBC’s Andrew Marr was bang out-of-order to ask Gordon Brown whether he uses prescription drugs seemingly on the basis of nothing more than Internet rumour:

… in making it an issue on the basis of no evidence, Andrew Marr and the BBC have done a real disservice to serious political reporting.

I stand by my assessment. However, I also pointed out that, at the time of writing, no-one from the right-wing blogosphere had taken Mr Marr to task. It’s only fair, therefore, to note that Tory MP Nadine Dorries yesterday broke ranks with the fellow members of her tribe to post a stinging denunciation:

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Stephen Tall

YouTube ‘cos we want to: McKay, Vince and Nads

By Stephen Tall | Sat 30th May 2009 - 1:50 pm

It’s the weekend, so why not sit back in your sofa/deckchair and enjoy the following three poltical videos from the past week…

First up, is Andreew Mackay the soon-to-be-former Tory MP for Bracknell and close aide of David Cameron, who was this week forced to quit after the extent of the anger of his constituents became clear. Initially Mr Mackay attempted to claim the mood of the meeting was very much in his favour – unfortunately for him, the video evidence suggested otherwise:

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Stephen Tall

Bring back Nads!

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd May 2009 - 1:10 pm

It’s been quite a week for Nadine Dorries, the eccentric Tory Cornerstoner MP for Mid-Bedfordshire. Yesterday she earned copious media coverage for her suggestion that MPs are on ‘suicide watch’ for their Parliamentary colleagues amidst the “unbearable” Westminster atmosphere sparked by the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses allegations.

But when reading her blog, it wasn’t that part which most caught my attention – it was this part:

… this country has never had a Prime Minister with the political courage to stand up to the British media, and award MPs the pay rise proposed year after year, by the Senior Salary Review

…

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Helen Duffett

Ordinary voters have lost touch with Conservative MPs

By Helen Duffett | Fri 22nd May 2009 - 11:15 am

Two startled Conservative MPs have been speaking out against the reporting of MPs’ expenses:

Conservative MP Anthony Steen has expressed his dismay at the public’s interest in his lavish expense claims for his country house.

The MP for Totnes in Devon has claimed £87,000 over four years for his second home. (“Some people say it looks like Balmoral,” he offered in his defence.)

On yesterday’s World at One programme on Radio Four he was indignant:

Do you know what it’s about? Jealousy. I’ve got a very very large house.

In a breathtaking display of narcissism, he kept on digging:

We have a wretched Government here which

…

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Antony Hook

Opinion: Some legal aspects of the McBride Affair

By Antony Hook | Tue 14th April 2009 - 7:20 pm

Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, is threatening to sue for libel over what was written about her in the McBride-Draper emails. I expect she may struggle because to succeed in court she will have to prove that damage has been actually caused (rather than a mere intent to cause damage) to her reputation. Politically, her threats to sue seem naive. Threatening to sue but then not doing so invites speculation as to why not.

The criminal law is, however, likely to be relevant. There is a statutory offence of defamatory libel …

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Mark Pack

Dawn Butler under fire for not turning up to Parliamentary committee meetings

By Mark Pack | Wed 8th April 2009 - 10:31 am

The Times today carries an interesting piece about the very low attendance rate at select committee meetings from some MPs. Select committees, and their reports, can be very influential, and particularly for those MPs who are not ministers or in the top media starts of other parties, select committee work is often the most effective way to exercise influence on matters outside their constituency.

There’s missing a few for good reason, and then there’s missing a lot:

Dawn Butler, another Labour MP who was promoted from the back benches last October, attended only 15 of the 64 meetings of the Children,

…

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Mark Pack

The curious case of Nadine Dorries’s website traffic

By Mark Pack | Fri 31st October 2008 - 7:28 pm

Reports of Nadine Dorries’s website traffic levels appear to greatly exaggerate the truth, but the Conservative MP has not been willing to put the record straight.

Earlier this month Bedford Today quoted Nadine Dorries as saying:

Having so many people visiting the site can be quite scary – according to Google I had 800,000 readers in July.

Google Analytics doesn’t provide a “readers” figure, and it’s therefore not clear exactly what her figure refers to (plus it is always possible either she made a slip of the tongue or the reporter got the phrase slightly wrong).

But let’s see how this figure might …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

What the Conservative Chief Whip gets up to on the internet

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th September 2008 - 12:55 pm

A Twitter update from someone at a fringe meeting at Conservative Party conference addressed by Nadine Dorries MP:

#cons08 blogging mp nadine again comments about the number of times the chief whip has told her to remove a blog post (Source)

Hat-tip: Tim Ireland

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Mark Pack

What does “completely cleared” mean?

By Mark Pack | Wed 24th September 2008 - 8:26 pm

A few days ago Iain Dale wrote:

On 9 June, Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy made a complaint to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, accusing Tory MP Nadine Dorries of using public funds to pay for her blog. He wrote a 21 page submission of evidence.

Last week, Nadine posted on her blog saying that she had been completely cleared of any wrongdoing.

This rather puzzled me at the time because the part of the complaint that I’d read closely looked to me an open and shut case of the rules having been breached. So how come Nadine Dorries was “completely …

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Mark Pack

Seven Tories face sleaze probes

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th June 2008 - 12:15 pm

So says The Sun. Paul Walter has helpfully done a round-up of the latest Conservative sleaze stories in today’s papers, including more news on Alan Duncan:

A second member of David Cameron’s shadow Cabinet faces a Parliamentary sleaze investigation after it emerged that his office is secretly funded by the head of a controversial oil company…

Vitol, which was Iran’s largest petrol supplier until last year, has been prosecuted after admitting paying bribes to Saddam Hussein’s government in exchange for valuable oil contracts from the Iraqi regime. It was fined $17.5 million (£8.8 million) by an American court.

The firm was

…

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