Nadine Dorries refuses to confirm she will vote for 'broken' Tories at the next election

Nadine Dorries may have finally quit as an MP 11 weeks after saying she would go, but she continues to generate controversy.

The former Conservative minister, who handed in her resignation on Saturday, has now refused to confirm that she will vote for the Tories at the next general election.

In her first television interview since standing down, Dorries was asked if she would vote for the party at the next election.

She told TalkTV: “You're asking me a question I don't want to answer. But I'll tell you what I will say.

“The person standing in my place in Mid Bedfordshire, Festus [Akinbusoye], is a fantastic guy – and I would urge the people of Mid Bedfordshire to forget about anything to do with party politics at the moment because it’s a mess and the Conservative Party is broken.”

Dorries had faced increasing pressure to leave her seat in Mid Bedfordshire after confirming her decision to quit in June.

Her delay in formally stepping down means a by-election has not been able to take place. Critics have dubbed her ‘Dosser Dorries’.

Meanwhile, Anneliese Dodds, the shadow women and equalities minister, called Monday a “morning of relief” for people in Mid Bedfordshire after Dorries resigned.

In her resignation letter, the Tory MP had accused Rishi Sunak of “demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy” against her.

Asked about this attack, Dodds said: “She is right to ask what Rishi Sunak stands for and what he’s achieved.”

She added: “I think it’s really going to be a morning of relief for people living in Mid Bedfordshire that finally they’re going to have that chance vote for an MP who will actually work hard for them.

“Labour's candidate Alistair Strathern has already been doing that for a long time, he has been raising local people's concerns.

“Unfortunately for such a long time people haven't had that strong representation, of course they've also had a Conservative government that has been described as almost like a zombie government by a Conservative MP – by Nadine Dorries.

“They really want to see that change.”

She said Labour could be in “pole position” to take the constituency, despite a Tory majority of thousands at the last general election.

Dorries was also asked if she thinks the Tories can win with Rishi Sunak as leader.

Dorries said: “I have to say my answer to that question is no, I don’t think so.

“I think it’s very, very unlikely.”

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