Nadine Dorries has rejected reports she could give up her safe seat in parliament to aid a Boris Johnson comeback as “100 per cent, nuclear grade tosh”.
The culture secretary said she had “never ever had that conversation” with the prime minister and added: “That is an invented, fabricated story in today’s Daily Mirror.”
Speculation has been mounting about Johnson’s next moves following his resignation as Tory leader earlier this month.
His finishing flourish of “hasta la vista” at the end of his last prime minister’s questions left open the idea that he could stage a political comeback and return to frontline politics.
Despite his resignation, Johnson remains the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a seat he holds with a majority of 7,210 votes. A spokesperson for Johnson recently told HuffPost UK that it was his intention to stay on as an MP.
But according to the Daily Mirror, Johnson’s supporters are concerned that he is vulnerable to being ousted by local voters and the next election and that he is now “testing the water with MPs with safe seats”.
It said one of those under consideration was Dorries, who has represented mid-Bedfordshire since 2005. She holds it with a 24,644 majority.
One insider told the newspaper that Dorries could be prepared to leave parliament if she does not keep her culture secretary post or is forced to leave Cabinet entirely.
In return, she and other loyalists could be offered honours, including knighthoods and peerages.
“They’re prepared to dangle honours in front of ultra-loyalists and those who might be thinking about standing down anyway,” the source told the newspaper.
Another said: “Boris thinks the Tory party has made a huge mistake getting rid of him and, with time, will come to regret it.
“It might sound deluded but his team thinks he can have another go at prime minister if he holds on. But sticking with Uxbridge would be risky. So they’re looking at options.”
Meanwhile, Dorries also said that Johnson also did not support a bid by grassroots Tories to stop him quitting No.10.
Around 14,000 Conservative members are reported to have signed a petition demanding a vote on whether Johnson’s resignation should be accepted. However, there have been reports that many of those signing up are not legitimate Tory party members.
The petition has been organised by Tory donor and peer Lord Cruddas, who said the PM had told him over lunch at Chequers that he wanted to remain in the job and lead the party into the next election.
But Dorries said the prime minister had told her personally that the campaign was “not right”.
“The prime minister actually spoke to me about this a few days ago, and he said, just in passing, ‘if you hear anything about these people, tell them to stop, it’s not right’,” she told the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4.
“Those were his exact words.”