Nadine Dorries has drawn from her working-class upbringing as she claimed “posh boys” blocked her from taking a seat in the House of Lords.
The outgoing Tory MP hit out at prime minister Rishi Sunak and one of his closest advisers, James Forsyth, after she did not appear on ally Boris Johnson’s resignation nominations, prompting the former cabinet minister to announce she was quitting parliament.
Johnson also dramatically announced on Friday he was resigning after Dorries and others had apparently been shorn from the list.
The row has since descended into a public slanging match between Sunak and his predecessor in Downing Street, with the current PM making clear the decision was made by the House of Lords appointment commission and that he refused Johnson’s request to intervene.
On Monday, Dorries added to the din when she spoke to Piers Morgan on TalkTV, and said she was “broken-hearted” that a woman from her background had had the appointment taken away from her.
She told Morgan “This story is about a girl from Breck Road in Liverpool who worked every day of her life since she was 14 years old, had something offered to her ... people from that background don’t get offered ... removed by two privileged posh boys who went to Winchester and Oxford, and taken away duplicitously and cruelly because they have known for months that it wasn’t the case. And yet they let me and they let Boris Johnson continue to believe that was the case.”
She added: “It was upsetting and it’s upsetting for everybody who thinks that one day they could be that person because you know what if you come up against someone like Rishi Soak and James Forsyth, from privileged backgrounds, who have it all very easily, given to them on a plate ... you’re in trouble.”
Johnson’s own background is not a fair comparison because he attended Eton on a scholarship and has “no money”, she claimed.
Dorries also claimed she had been “bullied” by No. 10 and decided she “can’t allow that to happen”.
She denied “knifing the party” by triggering a by-election in her constituency, telling TalkTV: “I think you come to a point in life when you have to stop, when you can’t just be pushed around, when you can’t allow people to bully you, as I’ve just been bullied by No 10. You can’t allow that to happen, you have to stand up for yourself, and that’s what I did.”
The former culture secretary added: “It was a painful decision … I didn’t want to cause a by-election.”
Dorries was born in 1957 in Liverpool and grew up on a council estate.
She has previously referred to David Cameron and George Osborne as “arrogant posh boys”, while describing herself as “a normal mother who comes from a poor background and who didn’t go to a posh school”.