Nadine Dorries has claimed in her new book that the Conservatives have been controlled for 20 years by a cabal known as the “movement”, which orchestrated the end of Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister.
The former culture secretary has alleged the group consists of levelling up secretary Michael Gove, Johnson’s former chief of staff Dominic Cummings and an adviser called Dougie Smith.
Dorries, a staunch ally of Johnson, said the cabal ousted the former prime minister and also “brought down Iain Duncan Smith as party leader, created havoc for Theresa May and undermined Liz Truss”.
The former MP’s book, The Plot: the Political Assassination, is being serialised in the Mail. According to excerpts in the paper, Dorries wrote that after Johnson made Cummings his chief of staff, the so-called “movement” instigated its plan to replace the prime minister after his December 2019 election victory as he had already served his purpose by winning an 80-seat majority.
A source told Dorries: “It was plainly obvious that Friday morning, the day after the election victory in December 2019, they [the movement] were furious.
“Boris had won too big. They felt like the confidence that gave him would make it more difficult to control him and, in a way, they were right. Boris constantly pushed back against all of them; and that made them both determined and furious.”
Dorries, who was appointed culture secretary by Johnson, wrote: “In 2019 they needed Boris to save them from all the harm they had been responsible for. The person they had actually lined up to be PM, Rishi, just wasn’t ready, but once Boris was in and had given them a big majority, it was time to get him out. He had served his purpose.”
Johnson, who resigned as prime minister in July 2022, is quoted in the book describing an “unexpected and fairly unpleasant” phone call in 2021 from Smith, the Tory adviser.
The former prime minister said: “I remember where I was when the call came; I was upstairs in the flat in the kitchen … he said: ‘I think you should go, you should stand down now and we may let you come back again one day. You are poison, like Nixon. If you don’t go, I’m going to take you down. I’ll finish you off.’”
Dorries resigned her Commons seat in August and accused Rishi Sunak of “demeaning his office” by speaking out against her, two and a half months after first announcing her intention to step down as MP for Mid Bedfordshire in protest at not receiving a peerage.
According to the excerpts, Dorries wrote that negative briefings about Carrie Johnson were part of the strategy to destabilise Johnson as they perceived his wife “as a barrier to their plan for total control”.
She added: “They wanted to place so much strain on the relationship that Carrie would walk. They tried big time to cause trouble in the home, to make them feel vulnerable and scared and dependent upon them. It’s mind games and they are good at it.”
Cummings responded to the allegations by sarcastically telling the Daily Mail: “She’s right, there was a giant conspiracy including MI6, the CIA and, most crucially, the KGB special operations department. It’s a tribute to Nadine she has figured this out. The movement wishes her well.”
A source close to Gove told the newspaper: “Nadine is a very talented bestselling fiction author.”
