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The chair of the Commons standards committee is leading a campaign to hold “absentee MP” Nadine Dorries accountable by either attending parliament or facing a by-election this autumn.
Sir Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, spoke with the Financial Times about his effort to reinstate a parliamentary rule from 1801 that states “no member do presume to go out of town without leave of this House”. The aim is to compel Dorries to follow through on her promise to resign.
Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire and former culture secretary, has drawn the ire of opposition MPs and some fellow Tories for remaining in her post since announcing her resignation on June 9. She expressed her protest after being excluded from former PM Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list for a peerage. Despite Downing Street’s denial, Dorries claims her nomination was blocked by Rishi Sunak’s administration as a way to punish Johnson.
In response to criticism, Dorries asserts that she is delaying her departure from the Commons in order to gather more information about her peerage nomination process. However, skeptics argue that Dorries had already disengaged from parliamentary affairs long before her resignation announcement. House of Commons records indicate that she hasn’t spoken in the Commons or participated in committee work since July of the previous year.
The records also reveal that Dorries has only voted on legislation for four days in the past year, most recently in April. There are currently no penalties for MPs who choose not to engage in Commons activities, despite their £86,580 salary.
Bryant criticizes Dorries as an “absentee MP” and proposes that when MPs return to parliament in September, they should table a motion requiring members who haven’t attended in six months to appear by a specified date. Failure to comply would result in a suspension from the House for at least 10 sitting days. Bryant has presented this proposal to government and Labour whips and discusses it in his book, Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament — and How to Do It.
If a 10-day suspension is imposed, Dorries’ constituents would have the opportunity to initiate a recall petition, potentially leading to a by-election. However, Bryant acknowledges that his actions may become unnecessary if Dorries chooses to resign and trigger a by-election herself.
When asked about Dorries’ representation of her constituents, the prime minister responded, “I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are,” and Rishi Sunak added, “At the moment people aren’t being properly represented.”
Last month, Flitwick town council in Mid Bedfordshire expressed their concerns about Dorries’ performance and urged her to vacate the seat. In an open letter, the council accused her of prioritizing her TV chat show on TalkTV, upcoming book, and political maneuvers over representing her constituents. They noted that she hadn’t spoken in the Commons since July 2022, hadn’t held a surgery in the town since March 2020, and hadn’t maintained a constituency office for a significant period of time.
We reached out to Dorries for comment.
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