Nadine Dorries is facing growing calls for a formal investigation over claims she sent a “forceful” message to the UK’s top civil servant pushing to be added to Liz Truss’s resignation honours list.
Cabinet secretary Simon Case revealed on Wednesday that he had reported the former culture secretary to the chief whip and Commons speaker over messages sent after she was blocked from a peerage in Boris Johnson’s list.
Now it has emerged that Ms Dorries’s WhatsApp message to Mr Case was a request to get a peerage through Ms Truss’s as yet unannounced list, according to The Times.
Whitehall’s former ethics chief told The Independent she should be probed over a possible breach of rules, while Labour called on the government to make sure Ms Dorries is “properly investigated” over any peerage demands.
The ardent Boris supporter was furious that she did not get a place in the Lords despite Mr Johnson’s efforts – lashing out at “posh boys” Rishi Sunak and his adviser James Forsyth over the decision.
Her messages to Mr Case first emerged at a hearing of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on Wednesday, when the cabinet secretary confirmed that he reported Ms Dorries and even sought legal advice.
Senior Tory MP William Wragg, the committee chair, asked Mr Case if he was aware of any “rather forceful communications” sent by Ms Dorries to senior civil servants.
Mr Wragg also accused Ms Dorries of “threatening” to use “the platform of the Commons and indeed her own television programme to get to the bottom of why she hadn’t been given a peerage”.
Mr Case said he was “aware of those communications and had flagged them to both the chief whip [Simon Hart] and Speaker of the House [Sir Lindsay Hoyle]”.
Asked whether the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 could “come into play”, Mr Case said he had “taken initial advice, but asked for more”. But The Independent understands that government officials have already decided she did not contravene the 1925 law.
Boris Johnson with Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss
It remains uncertain whether the chief whip or Commons speaker could make further inquiries and sanction the senior MP.
Sir Alistair Graham, former head of the Committee of Standards on Public Life, told The Independent, that Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary standards commissioner, should investigate the matter to see if she had brought the Commons into disrepute.
“That is not appropriate behaviour for an MP,” he said on her contact with the cabinet secretary over a peerage. “I was surprised she would do it in such a public way.” Sir Alistair said an MP would have to report her to the committee.
Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire called on the Tory government to make sure Ms Dorries was “properly investigated”.
The shadow Commons leader mocked Ms Dorries for “failing to turn up here for more than a year” while finding the time to present her own TV show, write her Daily Mail column and pen a book. “That is a lot to fit in between strops over being denied a peerage.”
Referring to her message to Mr Case, she challenged Commons leader Penny Mordaunt to “clear up this mess and tell us if this is being properly investigated”. She also asked if Mr Sunak was “still happy for that member to be listed as a Conservative”.
Ms Mordaunt said the issues around Ms Dorries “are not ones for me” or the Tory chief whip, adding: “They are matters for the cabinet secretary. Standards and ethics are very important and they are important rules, but clearly there are some grey areas.”
The Lib Dems have called on Mr Sunak to suspend the Tory whip. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Ms Dorries was facing “serious allegations” and warned that “any further delay to the Conservative whip being removed while this investigation takes place is another clear sign of Rishi Sunak’s weak leadership”.
But a friend of Ms Dorries told The Times the idea of threatening messages was “complete nonsense”, adding: “She was probably upset on the day at the way she had been treated but she’s not aggressive. She has been very badly served.”
Nadine Dorries is in the spotlight after refusing to formally resign
Mr Wragg has referred to Ms Dorries as the “lingering” member for Mid-Bedfordshire. Many Tory MPs are frustrated by failing to formally resign, despite announcing she was leaving parliament with immediate effect over a month ago.
The arch-Johnson loyalist has warned Mr Sunak that she will not formally quit until the government releases documents surrounding the decision to deny her a peerage as part of the former PM’s resignation honours.
Ms Debbonaire said: “Perhaps she could give a dictionary definition of the word ‘immediate’ …. When will the people she is supposed to represent get the chance to elect a Labour MP, who will actually show up for working people?”
Ms Dorries has said she was “100 per cent” sure that Mr Johnson had not decided to axe her from the list himself, accusing Mr Sunak and Mr Forsyth of blocking her peerage.
But No 10 has insisted that the PM and his team had nothing to do with changes made to the list, pointing to the role of the House of Lords appointment commission (Holac) in approving honours.
