Nadine Dorries has said she will not formally resign until after she gets answers from Downing Street about why she did not get her peerage.
In a Twitter thread, the former culture secretary responded to the “speculation” as to why she is yet to formally quit the Commons, after announcing her intention to do so on Friday.
She insisted it is “absolutely my intention to resign” following suggestions she is dragging out the process to cause political pain for Rishi Sunak.
However she said she is “awaiting responses” to information she has requested from the House of Lords Appointments Committee (HOLAC), the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and the Cabinet Office.
She said: “I have requested copies of WhatsApp’s, text messages, all emails and minutes of meetings both formal and informal with names of senior figures unredacted.
“It is absolutely my intention to resign, but given what I know to be true and the number of varying and conflicting statements issued by No10 since the weekend, this process is now sadly necessary.”
Ms Dorries has suggested “sinister forces” were behind the decision not to include her on Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list.
Nadine Dorries ‘dragging out formal resignation to prolong pain’ for Rishi Sunak
Nadine Dorries claims ‘sinister forces’ were behind House of Lords snub
Nadine Dorries standing down as MP with ‘immediate effect’ triggering by-election
The former cabinet minister had been chosen by Mr Johnson for a peerage, along with Nigel Adams and former COP26 president Sir Alok Sharma.
But when the list was finally revealed, the three names were absent – prompting a bitter war of words between Mr Johnson and his successor.
Downing Street has said it is “entirely untrue” that Mr Sunak or members of his Number 10 team removed names from Mr Johnson’s honours list following accusations from the former prime minister’s camp.
But Ms Dorries has claimed this is not true and Number 10 officials failed “to pass on vital information” from the Lords’ vetting body that she needed to agree to stand down from the Commons and join the upper chamber within six months or face being left off.
Following the perceived snub, Ms Dorries announced she would stand down as an MP with “immediate effect”, triggering a by-election in her constituency of Mid Bedfordshire.
The dates of the by-elections caused by the resignations of Boris Johnson and his ally Nigel Adams are due to be announced this week, but it is understood the contest in Ms Dorries’s seat of Mid Bedfordshire will happen at a later date because she has not formally resigned.
