TORY MP Nadine Dorries is facing a probe into whether she broke the law over “forceful” messages sent to government officials about not being given a peerage.
Appearing at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case said he had “flagged” communications from the Boris Johnson loyalist to senior officials to both the Commons Speaker and the chief whip.
Dorries has announced her intention to quit as an MP - but said she would not do so formally until she gets answers over the peerage she never received in the resignation honours list of Johnson.
Tory MP and committee chairman William Wragg asked Case if he was aware of “any rather forceful communications” sent by Dorries “to senior civil servants” about potentially using “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?”
Case replied: “Yes, was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the chief whip and Speaker of the House.”
Asked if he had taken legal advice on whether the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 could “come into play”, the top civil servant said he was “seeking further advice on that question. So taken initial advice, but asked for more”.
The LibDems called on the Prime Minister to withdraw the Tory whip while the claims are investigated.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “These allegations are staggering and it’s crucial a swift investigation takes place into whether Nadine Dorries may have broken the law.
“Not only is Dorries failing to represent the people of Mid Bedfordshire, but now it emerges she has allegedly sent threatening messages to civil servants.
“The least Rishi Sunak can do is suspend her by withdrawing the Conservative whip while any investigation takes place.”
It comes as it was confirmed that Dorries has written a book which claims to have uncovered a “fault line” within the Conservative Party through conversations with Cabinet ministers, civil servants and party officials which form the basis of her account.
Called The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, it will be published days before the Tory Party conference in September.
The book, for which Dorries received £20,500 as a partial advance from HarperCollins, is billed as the story of “treachery and deceit at the heart of the Westminster machine”.
The former culture secretary said: “I had wanted to discover the forces behind the downfall of the prime minister. Instead, I found a fault line within the Conservative Party stretching back decades, and a history of deception fuelled by the darkest political arts.
“If you thought that power flowed from the people into Parliament, be prepared to think again.”
Dorries was among eight Conservative parliamentarians recently rebuked for her conduct in relation to the Privileges Committee investigation of Johnson.
The cross-party panel, which ultimately found Johnson lied to MPs with his repeated denials of pandemic-era parties in Downing Street, accused his loyalists of a co-ordinated attempt to undermine its work.
The Privileges Committee ultimately triggered Johnson’s resignation from Parliament in protest at its recommendation that he should face a lengthy suspension for misleading the Commons.
The former prime minister was forced out of No 10 after losing the confidence of his party following a series of political crises.
