Nadine Dorries has become the 18th Tory MP to announce an intention to quit as an MP at the next election, hours after a red wall Tory elected for the first time in 2019 announced that she would stand down.
Dorries, a loyal supporter of Boris Johnson, said on her TalkTV show Friday Night with Nadine: “After much soul searching, I have decided not to stand as an MP at the next general election.”
The former culture secretary lashed out at those who removed Johnson, calling them “the elite, the faux political intellectuals, you know who I’m talking about. Those who believe they know better than anyone else bet everything on a Rishi bounce.”
It has been widely reported that Dorries will receive a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours list. Dorries claimed to have “heard nothing” about this.
Her announcement came hours after Jo Gideon, who won Stoke-on-Trent Central from Labour by 670 votes in 2019, said she would quit. Gideon, 70, is the second of the 2019 intake — after Dehenna Davison — to say she will step down.
Gideon had previously said that she wanted to be re-adopted as the Conservative candidate for the seat. She said: “I have not come to this decision lightly. I have invested much time and love in my work as the Conservative member of parliament for this city that I care deeply about.”
She supported Sunak in both leadership elections. In the summer leadership election she initially supported Tom Tugendhat.
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Gareth Snell, who was the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2017 to 2019, has been selected by Labour to stand again for the seat. His predecessor was Tristram Hunt, the former shadow education secretary who left politics to become director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Other Conservatives who have said they will not contest the next election include the former cabinet ministers George Eustice, Sajid Javid and Chloe Smith. Matt Hancock, who was stripped of the whip for taking part in I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!, is also standing down. Dorries lost the party whip when she appeared on the same show in 2012.
