Nadine Dorries is reportedly continuing to be the fly in Rishi Sunak’s ointment by refusing to officially quit as an MP.
On Friday, the former cabinet minister joined ex-prime minister Boris Johnson and former minister Nigel Adams in announcing they were leaving parliament amid the row over Johnson’s resignation honours list.
The list lacked the names of Dorries and Adams – which prompted Johnson to dramatically announce his Commons exit, as the privileges committee of MPs prepared to report that he lied to parliament over partygate.
Johnson and Adams have triggered the process to formally seal their departure and kickstart by-elections in their constituencies.
But a vote in Dorries’ Mid Bedfordshire seat is on hold because she has not formally resigned as a Tory MP.
And BBC’s Newsnight reported it’s because she wants to cause trouble for Sunak – aka Johnson’s nemesis.
The show’s political editor Nick Watt reported Dorries is “deeply unhappy with Number 10 for in her eyes scuppering her peerage”, and thinks “delaying her resignation as an MP would scupper another plan that is the Downing Street plan to deal with the pain of potentially tricky by-elections by holding them quickly and holding them on one day”.
Watt added: “I understand that Nadine Dorris is planning to delay her actual resignation and we may not see that until shortly before the start of the parliamentary summer recess, which is at the end of July.”
More drama.
The war of words between the current and former prime ministers erupted after Downing Street published Johnson’s honours list on Friday.
Hours later Johnson dramatically announced his Commons exit.
The prime minister suggested his former boss wanted him to ignore the recommendations of the House of Lords appointments commission.
Johnson said he was talking “rubbish” and his camp accused Sunak of having “secretly blocked” the peerages of Dorries and Adams.