this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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UK Politics

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Dorries said she would stand down as an MP with immediate effect in early June. However, she later refused to do so until she was given an explanation for the lack of a peerage. It was not until 26 August – more than 11 weeks after she initially said she would – that Dorries formally resigned.

The immaturity is staggering. An actual adult throwing an 11 week tantrum because they feel entitled to a medieval honor.

The world over, conservatives are spoilt children.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

The whole fact that am MP, can refuse to work for 11 weeks, With no valid excuse. Shows just how out of touch the whole system has become. If MPs are ill or away for work. They arrange cover for voting. Its annoyingly informal. But most try to give a shit.

The whole of the UK left and right. Should be up in fucking arms over this womans ability to leave her constituants without representation.

What the hell other job could anyone be hired for where this is acceptable. MPs should be required to attend parliament for a working week. or account for the hours they do not. Or be replaced.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

And during those 11 weeks she refused to do her actual job.

The MP for my region is a Tory as well and he's absolutely sodding useless, and is well versed in the art of taking credit for other people's projects, but even he holds surgeries which is more than she was doing at the end.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

The world over, conservatives are spoilt children.

True. See also: the losing Tory in Mid Beds storming out after the count. Pathetic behaviour!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

She has insisted Sunak blocked a peerage she believed she was about to be awarded by Johnson – an allegation the current prime minister has denied.

I mean.... if true that's a baller move 🤣. Screw her she doesn't deserve any respect. WTF she doesn't turn up to work and expects a peerage? Sheeeeeeiiiiit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Honestly it looks like Johnson just screwed up the paperwork and no one could be bothered to help him.

Don't expect a moral stance from anyone in the government.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I thought the problem was that she didn't want to stand down as an MP but did want a peerage when she eventually stood down at the election? Which is not possible as once you make someone a peer then they're a peer, and you can't sit in both houses at the same time. She basically wanted them to announce now that she'll become a peer in a year or two, which they can't do.

So she threw a massive tantrum and resigned now anyway - which, if she'd been willing to do in the first place, might have meant she could have actually got the Boris crony peerage that she wanted.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that they just didn't realise she had to resign before going on the honours list.

Basically the problem is a lot more nuanced than you can't sit in both houses at once, it's that you can't be considered to sit in one house if you already have the right to sit in another. Otherwise, people could just pogo back and forth between the two houses as was convenient.

So all the people in the house of lords that wanted to stand as an MP had to resign from the lords first, and I guess it works in the other direction.

Doris only made a fuss about staying as MP when she found out she wasn't getting the peerage. Before that she didn't seem to care.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's actually slightly more complicated than even that. It wasn't as if she was going to stand down as an MP at the next election, and then have a peerage (although that would have been bad enough), she wanted to remain an MP for an unspecified length of time (she never explained why) and then be able to just switch over to having a peerage whenever she decided.

They might have been prepared to slightly twist the rules in the first instance but what she was demanding was just so far beyond reasonable that no one was prepared to even consider it. Also the lord's actually do have a reputation to upkeep and she's a brainless tit, so they weren't exactly prepared to go out of their way to assist.

Both Boris Johnson and Nadine Doris supposedly were professional politicians, it's utterly ridiculous that they didn't understand the rules.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Also the lord’s actually do have a reputation to upkeep and she’s a brainless tit, so they weren’t exactly prepared to go out of their way to assist.

I mean, yes obviously, but that doesn't stop this lot. In the same resignation list, they ennobled Boris's 29 year old intern who has never had a proper job but now is a lifelong member of our legislature.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Labour have won the Mid Bedfordshire byelection, overturning a huge majority and delivering a significant blow to Rishi Sunak’s hopes of holding on to power at the next general election – expected to be in 2024.

Alistair Strathern takes the parliamentary seat vacated by the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, beating the candidate hoping to hold it for the Conservatives, Festus Akinbusoye.

Strathern also held off competition from the Liberal Democrats, who refused to cede ground to Labour, insisting they had a genuine chance of winning the seat themselves.

Speaking as the results were announced, Starmer said: “Voters across Mid Bedfordshire, Tamworth and Britain want a Labour government determined to deliver for working people, with a proper plan to rebuild our country.

She has insisted Sunak blocked a peerage she believed she was about to be awarded by Johnson – an allegation the current prime minister has denied.

The lengthy delay, and the increasing sense in some quarters that Dorries was an absentee MP, opened an avenue for rival parties to overturn the huge majority.


The original article contains 603 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

He's doing the thumbs!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

What happens if a party loses its majority from a byelection result? Does it trigger a general election?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

We're still some way off that, unfortunately! The Tories would have to lose another 26 by-elections, which doesn't seem likely.

It has actually happened before: John Major lost his (much smaller) 1992 majority when Labour won the Wirral South byelection, albeit this was only a couple of months before he had to hold a GE by law anyway. Of course, he still clung on to the bitter end before, in an encouraging precedent for Labour and the country, losing in a landslide.

[email protected] is correct that the Opposition parties would then have to win a Vote of No Confidence (VONC). I suspect the NI unionist parties would still vote to keep Sunak in power in that situation, but who knows? Probably this late in the Parliament, Starmer, like Blair in '97, would choose to just wait till the GE rather than calling a VONC he might not win.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not automatically. But most likely yes.

General elections happen when gov calls. Or opposision parties can win a no confidence vote. So if the tories has 1 short of a majority. Election would become more likely but require other parties to call and vote the gov down. Of course some may support the gov. Or form a new gov.