Nadine Dorries was first elected as the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire in 2005 being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 24,664. She resigned from Westminster in June 2023.
The Mid Befordshire constituency contains the entire central belt of Bedfordshire and includes the towns of Ampthill and Flitwick. This is safe Conservative territory and has been held by the party continuously since the Second World War.
Nadine Dorries was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in September 2021. She resigned from the government in Setpember 2022.
In February 2023, Dorries announced that she planned to step down from parliament at the next election. In June 2023, following claims she had been denied a peerage, she indicated that she planned to resign and create an impending by-election in here seat.
Dorries was a long term ally of Boris Johnson, and served as the Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide and Patient Safety at the Department of Health between 2019 and 2021.
Nadine was brought up in a council house in Liverpool and started her working life as a nurse; she subsequently enjoyed a successful career running a children’s day care business for working parents. The business was later sold to BUPA, and Dorries then served as a Director BUPA. She later became a successful novelist.
Dorries previously had a series of high profile clashes with Speaker John Bercow and former Prime Minister David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne who she described as ‘arrogant posh boys’.
Dorries is positioned on the right of the Conservative Party. She backed Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, and supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. Dorries is a Christian who has previously campaigned to lower the time limit permitted for abortion.
She appeared on ‘I am Celebrity Get Me out of here’ in 2012, without the permission of the government whips office, and subsequently lost the Conservative whip for a small period.
Dorries is divorced with three children.
Email: nadine.dorries.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: www.dorries.org.uk
Twitter: @NadineDorriesMP
