Nadine Dorries frustrates Sunak by failing to officially resign as MP

Nadine Dorries has still not formally resigned as an MP, frustrating Rishi Sunak’s attempts to start preparing to replace her.

It has been five days since the former cabinet minister announced her intention to “immediately” step down. Boris Johnson and Nigel Adams, who announced their intentions to immediately quit hours after Dorries, have both officially resigned.

Until Dorries sends her official resignation to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative party chief whip, Simon Hart, cannot move a motion known as a writ for byelections in Dorries’s Mid Bedfordshire seat. It is understood Hart will move the writ for byelections in Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency and Adams’s Selby and Ainsty seat on Wednesday.

Dorries, a fierce Johnson ally, is inflicting more pain upon the Tory party by delaying her official resignation. Sunak had already attempted to avoid facing byelections by rejecting peerages for Dorries and Adams. With Dorries delaying her official resignation, Sunak may face a potential autumn byelection that would ruin his chances of trying to reset the party around its conference.

A senior Conservative MP has accepted that the Tories are expected to lose all three byelections. If Dorries hands in her resignation soon, all three byelections could be held on one day, floated as 20 July.

“It will be a complete washout. Once again, Rishi Sunak’s attempts to reset the party are hampered by another Boris drama. The prime minister must think big picture now.”

The delay has left Dorries’s constituents in limbo. A number of loyal Conservative voters have criticised her record, describing her as an “absent MP who is too focused on writing books”.

The Conservative party chair, Greg Hands, paid a visit to Dorries’s constituency on Sunday, after at least 130 Liberal Democrat activists had descended on the area in an attempt to win over voters.

“I pay tribute to Nadine,” Hands said on Sunday. “She was 18 years the member of parliament here in Mid Bedfordshire, [and] was elected with 60% of the vote last time around. She has been a popular MP and has done brilliant work on keeping children safe with the online safety bill and all of those things.

“But now we’re moving on, we’re looking forward to selecting a new candidate for Mid Bedfordshire as soon as possible and we’re looking forward to winning this byelection here in Mid Bedfordshire.”

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The byelections have been triggered by “political tantrums” over peerages, according to the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who has said Johnson and Sunak are damaging the UK’s reputation internationally.

The former minister, who accused Sunak of “duplicitously and cruelly” blocking her elevation to the House of Lords, on Friday said she would be standing down with immediate effect.

CCHQ had been holding byelection drills for at least a month, the Guardian understands, before Dorries, Johnson and Adams announced their intentions to quit in order to accept peerages amid claims that Johnson was told as early as March that a Dorries peerage would be rejected.

The drills have consisted of outlining what the priority issues within each seat were, and which ministers should make visits to each constituency and why.