Nadine Dorries’ claim that “privileged posh boys” prevented her from being offered a seat in the House of Lords has been slapped down by a former Tory party leader on Tuesday.
The ex-Culture Secretary triggered a by-election in her Mid Bedfordshire seat when she stood down as an MP on Friday after learning she was not on former Prime MinisterBoris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
She used her TalkTV show to claim she was “bullied” by Downing Street and accuse Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and senior aide James Forsyth of “duplicitously and cruelly” blocking a working class woman from getting a peerage.
Referring to Mr Sunak and Mr Forsyth, she added: “This story is about a girl from Liverpool... who had something that was offered to her... removed by two privileged posh boys.”
However, William Hague today challenged the claim.
He told Times Radio: “I went to a comprehensive school in Rotherham and I’m a Lord.
“The idea a barrier [was] erected by posh boys, well, posh boys didn’t do very well stopping me getting in there and I don’t think that that’s how it works at all.
“In this case the problem was a former Prime Minister proposing a whole set of people for the Lords who were in the House of Commons at the time.
“That raises a major difficulty.”
Ms Dorries was among the names of sitting MPs missing from the list, along with Sir Alok Sharma, who was Cop26 president, and former minister Nigel Adams when it was published last week.
She launched a fresh attack on the Prime Minister, claiming he used “sophistry” in a meeting with Mr Johnson last week, which left the outgoing MP believing she would be included in the peerage list.
“I’m brokenhearted, not just for me but for everyone who comes from a background like mine,” she said.
Asked to explain her understanding of what had happened, she said the House of Lords appointment commission (HOLAC) had told No10 she would need to announce her departure as an MP in order to enter the Lords. She said she was aware of this rule, but that she had been urged “via back channels” not t trigger a by-election so held off.
A plan was devised by the Cabinet Secretary whereby she would stay on the list until a general election, but “we found out that suddenly that wasn’t allowed”, Ms Dorries claimed.
Detailing the chain of events on Friday, the former minister said she only learned that her name was not on the list half an hour before it was published. The Chief Whip spoke to her in the morning to say “everything’s fine” before contacting her hours later to reveal she was not included, she said.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “HOLAC did not support the nominations of the MPs put forward by the former Prime Minister .
“It is unprecedented for a sitting prime minister to invite HOLAC to reconsider the vetting of individual nominees on a former Prime Minister’s resignation list. It is therefore not a formality.”
