Nadine Dorries urged to quit by council over her ‘focus on political manoeuvres’

Flitwick Town Council expressed its concern over the ‘continuing lack of representation’ for her Mid Bedfordshire constituents.

Nadine Dorries has been urged to vacate her seat by a town council n her constituency (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Archive)

Nadine Dorries has been urged by a town council in her Mid Bedfordshire seat to resign immediately as she came under fire over the “continuing lack of representation” for her constituents.

The Tory former Cabinet minister announced her intention to quit as an MP last month after she failed to receive a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, but is yet to do so formally.

Flitwick Town Council called on Ms Dorries “to immediately vacate your seat” amid “concerns and frustration” about her focus on her TV work and “political manoeuvres to embarrass the Government”.

The council is concerned that your focus appears to have been firmly on your television show, upcoming book and political manoeuvres to embarrass the Government for not appointing you to the House of Lords

Flitwick Town Council

In a strongly worded letter, the councillors said: “The last time you spoke in the Commons was 7 June 2022.

“You have not maintained a constituency office for a considerable time, and it’s widely understood that you have not held a surgery in Flitwick since March 2020.

“Rather than representing constituents, the council is concerned that your focus appears to have been firmly on your television show, upcoming book and political manoeuvres to embarrass the Government for not appointing you to the House of Lords.

“Councillors noted that your behaviour widely reported in the press is not in line with the Seven Principles of Public Life set out by Lord Nolan in 1995.”

They noted that the residents of Flitwick, which with a population of around 13,800 represents the largest concentration of voters in the constituency, “desperately need effective representation now”.

“Flitwick Town Council calls on you to immediately vacate your seat to allow a by-election.”

Ms Dorries announced her exit from Westminster on June 9, but a week later said she would stay on while she investigated why she was denied a seat in the House of Lords as part of the former prime minister’s honours list.

The staunch ally of Mr Johnson hosts a weekly chat show on Talk TV and has written a book titled The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, due to be published days before the Conservative Party conference in September.

Mid Bedfordshire has been held by Ms Dorries since 2005 and the Conservative Party generally since 1931.

The Tories last week lost two by-elections, in Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome, but narrowly hung on to the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat vacated by Mr Johnson.

Alistair Strathern, Labour’s Mid Bedfordshire candidate, said residents in the constituency are “sick of being taken for granted, they want proper representation and a local MP who puts them first”.

“Polling is telling us that it’s a two-horse race between Labour and the Conservatives, and that is reflected in the conversations I’m having on the doorstep every day,” he added.

“People in Mid Beds are ready for change and I’m ready to stand up for them and be the hardest-working, most accessible MP they have ever had.”

Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney called it an “unprecedented” move and said it “shows local people are fed up with being taken for granted by an absent MP and this Conservative Government”.

“While families across Bedfordshire are struggling to see a GP and facing soaring mortgage costs, Nadine Dorries continues to hold onto a job she has no interest is doing.”