Nadine Dorries thanked former prime minister Boris Johnson for never judging her by her accent in her resignation letter this morning.
The outgoing culture secretary and MP for Mid Bedfordshire and part-time romance novelist grew up in a council estate in Liverpool and trained as a nurse in Warrington before seeking elected office in 2005.
She revealed in her letter to Mr Johnson that she was asked to remain in her Cabinet position under Liz Truss’s new government, but “after much reflection” she decided to resign.
She said she will be “better placed” to support the new PM from outside the top team.
The loyal Johnson ally wrote in her letter shared on Twitter: “As you know, I was born in Breck Road in Liverpool, one of the poorest areas in the country. When arrived in Westminster in 2005, you were one of the first MPs to greet me. Many on both sides of the chamber, upon hearing my accent, judged me despite the fact that I had worked in the NIS and had established and sold my own business.
“You did not. You spoke to me as an equal and encouraged us all with kind words, consideration and warmth.
“When you made levelling up a central pillar of your time in office, I knew more than most that you meant it and when you gave me my job as Culture Secretary, I was determined to do all that I could to ensure that those who thought theatres, museums, art galleries and libraries were not places for them, felt welcome.
“I was already aware that the children on the streets that I grew up on had less opportunity to access the arts now than those children I grew up with in the 1960s. That is why one of my first objectives was to move arts funding out of London to the regions.”
During the Tory leadership campaign, Ms Dorries was an outspoken critic of Rishi Sunak - in one controversial tweet likening him to Brutus stabbing Julius Caesar over the way he had turned on Mr Johnson.
She accused fellow Tory MPs of staging a “coup” against the outgoing prime minister, and was one of his most unbending defenders during the partygate saga.
She is expected to receive a peerage from Mr Johnson now she has resigned from her position.
