Nadine Dorries
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Nadine Dorries’ attempt to slam the BBC has awkwardly backfired for a very basic reason.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, the Culture secretary revealed a rather short memory as she accused the corporation of “nepotism” despite her employing her daughters to work in her MP office less than a decade ago.
She said: “We’re having a discussion about how the BBC can become more representative of the people who pay the licence fee, and how it can be more accessible to people from all backgrounds, not just people whose mum and dad worked there.”
Dorries employed her daughters Phillipa and Jennifer to work as secretaries in her private office in 2012, the Mirror reported. Both daughters were paid from public funds at a cost to the taxpayer of up to £80,000, but for some reason, this didn’t affect Dorries’ analysis of the arts and media sector, and the minister added, without shame:
“People from my background wrote books, wrote theatre plays and did really well.
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“If you want to do that today you need a double-barrelled name, you need to have gone to a private or a public school or your mum needs to know someone, or your dad needs to know someone, or you need to have a connection at the BBC.”
While she has a point about the dominance of privately educated people in much of the media, reacting to her, people quickly reminded her about her own employment arrangements:
.@NadineDorries hired her daughters and paid their £80k salary using taxpayers money
— Julia Macfarlane 🇮🇩🏴 (@juliamacfarlane) October 5, 2021
(And in 7 years I didn’t know anyone at the BBC whose parents worked there. I’d like a source for her claim, but I expect there isn’t one because it’s not true)https://t.co/lrKMJ6WNtu https://t.co/BRyAprBKsn
Nadine Dorries knows all about #nepotism 😏
— Frankie Shrapnel💙 (@FrankieShrapnel) October 5, 2021
Gosh this is awkward pic.twitter.com/Z5unRLp3cW
— Sam Bright (@WritesBright) October 4, 2021
This is the Nadine Dorries who in 2013 employed two of her daughters as staff in her parliamentary office at a cost of £80,000, right?
— Andy Saunders (@mrasaunders) October 5, 2021
https://t.co/3ckCmGngoQ
BBC may not exist in 10 years, says Nadine Dorries https://t.co/4wZDFRUqNi
— Berlin Tony (again) (@TonyWeb80791059) October 5, 2021
Say no to nepotism - says the women that employs her daughter
Hypocrisy on the Dorries scale.... https://t.co/a847rFoqIJ
— Bill P 💙NHS (@witandwhiz) October 5, 2021
Nadine Dorries reckons the BBCs bent. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/dqvwI8FSXH
— 𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕁𝕒𝕫𝕫 (@JayJay08752584) October 5, 2021
Very awkward indeed.
indy100 has contacted Nadine Dorries for comment.
