Rishi Sunak has suggested that Tory MP Nadine Dorries should get a move on and resign – warning her constituents are not being “properly represented”.
Ms Dorries said in June she would quit parliament “with immediate effect” after she was passed over for a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
But two months later the Mid Bedfordshire MP is yet to actually step down and is facing accusations of being a “stay away MP” for not attending parliament.
Speaking during a radio phone in on Wednesday morning Mr Sunak was quizzed over why Ms Dorries had not spoken in the Commons for around a year.
“I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them wherever they are,” the prime minister told LBC radio.
“It’s just making sure that your MP is engaging with you representing you, whether that’s speaking in Parliament or being present in their constituencies, through surgeries, answering your letters. That’s the job of an MP and all MPs should be held to that standard.”
He added: “At the moment people aren’t being properly represented. We have a strong Conservative candidate there, Festus Akinbusoye, who has been doing a great job as Police and Crime Commissioner previously or currently and I think people there will see that we’ve got a fantastic candidate for them to represent and going forward.”
Ms Dorries last spoke in the Commons chamber on 7 July 2022, the day her close ally Mr Johnson resigned as prime minister.
The Mid Bedfordshire MP was widely expected to follow Mr Johnson out of the door and trigger a by-election this summer after announcing she would quit.
But she later she would remain in post until she got an answer from Mr Sunak about why she had not been elevated to the House of Lords.
She is a persistent critic of Mr Sunak’s leadership and has branded him a “privileged posh boy” who “cruelly” blocked her from a peerage.
Her local town council in Flitwick this week urged her to step down “immediately”, arguing that “residents desperately need effective representation now”.
