Rishi Sunak has labelled Nadine Dorries an absentee MP who is not properly representing her constituents, in a rare attack on a Conservative colleague that betrayed the mounting frustration in No 10 at her refusal to step down.
Dorries, the former culture secretary and close ally of Boris Johnson, announced nearly two months ago she would “immediately” resign as an MP, but has since said she wants answers as to why she did not receive a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours list.
While she hosts a weekly show on TalkTV, and has written a book about Johnson’s removal as PM, out in September, Dorries has not spoken in the Commons for 13 months and last voted in April.
Asked about Dorries during an LBC Radio call-in, just before he headed on holiday to California, Sunak said: “I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are.
“It’s just making sure your MP is engaging with you, representing you, whether that’s speaking in parliament or being present in their constituencies doing surgeries, answering your letters. That’s the job of an MP and all MPs should be held to that standard.”
Asked if that meant Dorries was failing her constituents, Sunak said: “Well, at the moment people aren’t being properly represented.”
In a letter to Dorries last week, Flitwick town council in her constituency said “concerns and frustration about the situation” had been raised at a recent meeting, and councillors wanted her to “immediately vacate” her seat to allow a byelection.
The letter said Dorries had last held a local surgery for constituents in March 2020. Dorries’ office has previously told the Guardian that she had stopped holding in-person surgeries for security reasons, but regularly saw constituents via Zoom. It also confirmed that she does not live in the constituency, saying this was also for security reasons.
Her delay is widely seen as an attempt to frustrate Sunak’s attempts to prepare to replace her, though she has endorsed the prospective Tory candidate Festus Akinbusoye for her seat.
Dorries had claimed she was holding on to her role as MP while she investigated why she was denied a seat in the House of Lords.
“It is absolutely my intention to resign, but given what I know to be true and the number of varying and conflicting statements issued by No 10 since the weekend, this process is now sadly necessary,” she said in a tweet in June.
Downing Street had previously acknowledged that it was “unusual” that Dorries had not formally resigned despite saying she would quit.
Asked if there was frustration over the delay, the prime minister’s press secretary said last month: “It’s obviously unusual to have an MP say they will resign with immediate effect and for that not to take place.”
Dorries and her office were contacted for comment.
Elsewhere in the LBC phone in, Sunak said he would be flying to California later on Wednesday for a holiday with his wife, Akshata Murty, and his two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka.
No 10 had previously said he was taking what officials called his first family holiday in nearly four years, but did not say where.
Sunak told Nick Ferrari’s show: “We’re going to California, which is where I met my wife, so it’s very special to us, but the kids are very excited because I’m taking them to Disneyland.”
He leaves the UK with the Conservatives consistently about 20 percentage points behind Labour in polling, and with some Tory MPs frustrated at the apparent lack of progress in policy goals, or of new ideas.
Questioned by callers on LBC, Sunak indicated that two of his five self-declared pledges – to halve inflation by the end of the year and to reduce NHS waiting lists in England – might not be met.
He said it was “not easy to bring down inflation”, adding: “Is that as fast as I’d like? No. Is it as fast as anyone would like? No. But the numbers most recently that we have had show that we’re heading in the right direction.”
Challenged about waiting lists by a junior A&E doctor, Sunak argued that strikes by junior doctors and consultants were to blame: “That’s what’s causing the waiting lists to go up, I don’t think that’s right.”
