Dorries Says Sunak Blocked Her Lords Seat

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries in an undated file photo. Stefan Rousseau/PA

Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has accused the prime minister and his political secretary of blocking her from receiving a seat in the House of Lords.

During an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV, Dorries called Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his aide James Forsyth “privileged posh boys” who “duplicitously and cruelly” took away her peerage.

Dorries had been a close ally of Boris Johnson during his term as prime minister and expected her name to appear on his resignation honours list.

Johnson, as an outgoing prime minister, put together a list of his colleagues and advisers to be reviewed for peerage and other honours. The peerage list has to be approved by the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC).

Dorries said she found out on June 9, despite being previously assured of her nomination, that her name was left out of the list.

Dorries said that in order to secure a seat in the House of Lords she would need to stand down as an MP, according to the rules of HOLAC. She claimed to have been asked “via back channels” to stay on as an MP in order to prevent a by-election in her constituency.

Dorries and Johnson were under the impression that her name would still be on the list, following a conversation between the former and the current prime minister.

Johnson argued that Sunak didn’t have to overrule HOLAC, but simply had to ask the commission to renew the vetting of the nominees on the list, which was a “mere formality.”

A Cabinet Office spokesperson told the BBC HOLAC did not support the peerage nominations listed by Johnson.

“It is unprecedented for a sitting prime minister to invite HOLAC to reconsider the vetting of individual nominees on a former prime minister’s resignation list,” the government spokesperson said.

Dorries said she was “broken-hearted” by the outcome and announced her resignation as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire on June 9.

Dorries has since been criticised for saying that she was concerned for everyone “who comes from a background like mine” in the face of “privileged posh boys.”

House of Lords peer Chris Rennard said it doesn’t have anything to do with Dorries’s place of birth.

“I grew up in Liverpool near where Nadine Dorries grew up, and at nearly the same time. I do not think it was anything to do with her place of birth which means that she is not now a baroness. There are plenty of Scousers in the House of Lords,” Rennard said on Twitter.

Controversy

Another minister whose name was omitted on the peerage list was Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty. Adams resigned on June 10.

The controversy over the nominations comes amid Johnson’s own resignation as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and the inquiry into whether he misled Parliament when he repeatedly claimed that COVID-19 rules had been “followed at all times” in Downing Street.

Johnson, Dorries, and Adams leaving their posts will trigger by-elections in their respective constituencies next month, all three being under the Conservatives for years.

The Liberal Democrats have already begun campaigning in Dorries’s former constituency of Mid Bedfordshire.

“Next month, people in Bedfordshire have a chance to send a message to this sleaze-ridden Conservative government,” the Lib Dems said on Tuesday.

Dorries has denied “knifing” the Conservative Party by quitting and triggering a by-election, which could see the seat whisked away from the Tories.

“I think you come to a point in life when you have to stop, when you can’t just be pushed around, when you can’t allow people to bully you, as I’ve just been bullied by No. 10. You can’t allow that to happen, you have to stand up for yourself, and that’s what I did,” the former MP said.

“My party is not helping itself,” Dorries added.