Moaning Nadine Dorries has waged class warfare on Rishi Sunak after she was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
The I’m A Celeb ….! former MP, who dramatically announced she was quitting Parliament after she was stopped from going to the House of Lords, labelled the Prime Minister and his political aide James Forsyth "privileged posh boys".
She claimed she resigned as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after being "bullied" by No10 as she accused Rishi Sunak of "duplicitously and cruelly" blocking her from getting a peerage.
Dorries, who was devoted to former Prime Minister Mr Johnson, was among the names of sitting MPs lacking from the list, along with Sir Alok Sharma and Nigel Adams.
She used a TalkTV interview to launch a fresh attack on the PM, claiming he used "weasel words” and "sophistry" in a meeting with Mr Johnson last week which left the outgoing MP believing she would be included.
Ms Dorries sought to divide the row along class lines, branding ex-Winchester College pupil Mr Sunak and his old classmate James Forsyth - now his political aide - "privileged posh boys" who stopped her being offered a seat in the Lords.
"I'm broken-hearted, not just for me but for everyone who comes from a background like mine," she whined.
"This story is about a girl from Liverpool... who had something that was offered to her... removed by two privileged posh boys."
She previously dubbed then PM David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne “two arrogant posh boys”.
Mr Johnson's own background is not a fair comparison because he attended Eton College on a scholarship and has "no money", she claimed.
Asked to explain her understanding of what had happened, she said the House of Lords appointment commission (Holac) had told No10 she would need to announce her departure as an MP in order to enter the Lords.
She said she was aware of this rule, but that she had been urged "via back channels" not to trigger a by-election so stalled.
A plan was devised by the Cabinet Secretary whereby she would stay on the list until a general election, but "we found out that suddenly that wasn't allowed", Ms Dorries claimed.
Detailing the chain of events on Friday, the former minister said she only learned that her name was not on the list half an hour before it was published.
Chief Whip Simon Hart spoke to her in the morning to say "everything's fine" before contacting her hours later to reveal she was not included, she said.
On the reason behind her shock resignation, she said: "It was the sheer audacity of the Chief Whip thinking that at my age having worked in Parliament for 21 years, serving 18 years on the back benches, having been a minister during Covid... having been a Secretary of State, that he can dangle out to me some kind of stick and carrot, like 'be a good girl and we'll make sure something's sorted for you in the future', which is basically what he was saying to me.
“That for me, and that moment, was what made me change my mind.
"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 No10. You can't allow that to happen, you have to stand up for yourself, and that's what I did."
Her intervention is the latest salvo amid a bitter war of words between Mr Johnson and the PM.
Mr Sunak said on Monday: “When it comes to honours and Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn't prepared to do because I didn't think it was right - that was to either overrule the (House of Lords Appointments) committee or to make promises to people.
“Now, I wasn't prepared to do that because I didn't think it was right and if people don't like that then tough."
The former PM accused Mr Sunak of "talking rubbish" for claiming his predecessor asked him to overrule the vetting committee to push through his House of Lords nominations.
"To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac - but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality," Mr Johnson said.
One Downing Street source said the Cabinet Office had made it clear to Mr Johnson that there is no re-vetting process, while the PM's spokesman said it is "entirely untrue to say that anyone from No10 attempted to remove or change" to Holac-approved list.
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