Nadine Dorries has blamed Rishi Sunak for a “ruthless coup” which led to Boris Johnson stepping down as Prime Minister.
The Culture Secretary, a staunch ally of the outgoing Prime Minister and supporter of Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she is “bitterly disappointed” Johnson was ousted by a “ruthless coup led largely by Sunak.” Johnson was forced to resign in July following a wave of almost 60 resignations of cabinet ministers, junior ministers and other government employees.
The resignations began when then Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden stepped down in June, followed by Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and more than 50 other Tories fewer than two weeks later. Dorries added Johnson is not supporting a campaign to get his name put on the ballot to decide the leader of the Conservative Party.
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Asked about a petition to get Johnson’s name on the ballot going to Tory members, she said the Prime Minister’s “exact words” were “Tell them to stop, it’s not right.” She also dismissed a Daily Mirror report that she may consider giving up her relatively safe constituency seat so Johnson does not have to defend his more marginal Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
Dorries said the claim is “100% nuclear grade tosh.”
Liverpudlian Dorries also defended her attack on Rishi Sunak’s expensive fashion choices and said she had warned that a contest to replace Boris Johnson would “unleash the hounds of hell.” She told BBC Breakfast: “Removing a sitting Prime Minister who won us an 80-seat majority less than three years ago, who took us through Covid and led the world in the response to the war in Ukraine, was never going to be a clean or easy thing for anyone to do.
“It was always going to have repercussions. I think I said at the very beginning we kind of unleashed the hounds of hell in doing that.”
Asked about her comments on Sunak’s expensive suits and shoes, Dorries said: “Judgment is a huge issue. We are facing a cost-of-living crisis.” She added there was no barrier to someone wealthy becoming prime minister, but “it’s about judgment and it’s about who voters can relate to.”
Earlier on Wednesday morning, Dorries called for security after an unknown man got into an off-camera altercation with her cameraman during a live TV interview.
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