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  1. Long reads
25 February 2010updated 12 Oct 2023 10:20am

10 people Dave should fear: Nadine Dorries

MP for Mid-Bedfordshire

By Staff Blogger

Known variously as “Mad Nad” and the Conservatives’ answer to Heather Mills, the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire didn’t want Cameron
as party leader: “he represented everything that through my life . . . I’d been suspicious of.” Cameron is the one who should be suspicious. A member of the Cornerstone Group, Nadine Dorries couldn’t be further from media-friendly compassionate conservatism. Her energetic defence of expenses included an insistence that MPs were near-suicidal with worry, and claims for £18,000 to cover rent on a “second home.”

Dorries’s creative interpretation of facts undermines causes that Cameron supports. To back up her stance against late-term abortion, she propagated an internet rumour that a 21-week-old foetus could punch through an incision in a womb. And her vendetta against the Speaker, John Bercow, is at odds with the Tory leader’s recent support for Bercow in his constituency seat.

Previous: Edward Leigh

Next: Margaret Thatcher

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Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
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