Ding, ding, ding! In the blue corner, it’s Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary and Boris-backer par excellence. And, er, also in the blue corner, is Jeremy Hunt, her fellow Tory MP and noted Johnson critic. Ahead of tonight’s no-confidence vote, Hunt has (finally) nailed his colours to the mast and admitted he will not be voting in support of the man who he ran against in 2019. Hunt tweeted this morning that:
‘Anyone who believes our country is stronger, fairer & more prosperous when led by Conservatives should reflect that the consequence of not changing will be to hand the country to others who do not share those values. Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change.’
With fights breaking out all over the place, will there be much of a party left to lead, regardless of tonight’s result?
That declaration prompted an enraged Dorries to hit back an hour later, responding with the kind of vitriol usually reserved for wounded mothers defending a favoured son. The former health minister fired off a series of howitzers at her parliamentary colleague, issuing a four-tweet threat that cited a phone conversation she had with Hunt back in June 2020.
Dorries claimed that Hunt told her that the UK should ‘handle the pandemic following the example set by the East/China’, something to which she responded that the ‘British people would never tolerate being removed from their homes and loved ones’. She continued that ‘your handling of the pandemic would have been a disaster’ adding ‘your pandemic preparation during six years as health secretary was found wanting and inadequate’. Ouch.
If all that wasn’t enough, Dorries concluded her riposte by telling Hunt that he is ‘destabilising the party and country to serve your own personal ambition’, that he told her after the 2019 election in Victoria Street that the government ‘would swiftly collapse on back of Brexit’ and he ‘would swoop in’ and that ‘if you had been leader you’d have handed the keys of No10 to Corbyn.’ She added cuttingly ‘You’ve been wrong about almost everything, you are wrong again now.’
With fights breaking out all over the place in parliament, will there be much of a party left to lead, regardless of tonight’s result?
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