Nadine Dorries standing down as Tory MP to trigger by-election

Nadine Dorries said she is quitting as an MP with immediate effect (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

Rishi Sunak is facing a by-election after Nadine Dorries announced she is standing down as an MP “with immediate effect”.

The move comes after months-long speculation that the former culture secretary was to be handed a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, although recent reporting suggested the British government cut her from the list at the 11th hour to swerve an early election battle in her seat.

The former British prime minister’s long-awaited list, which is said to include around 50 names, is expected to be released imminently.

Ms Dorries tweeted on Friday afternoon: “I have today informed the chief whip that I am standing down as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, with immediate effect.

“It has been an honour to serve as the MP for such a wonderful constituency but it is now time for another to take the reins.”

The former Cabinet minister and staunch Johnson loyalist, who had previously detailed her plan to quit as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire at the next election, has a majority of more than 24,600 over the main Opposition party.

Hours before her dramatic announcement, Ms Dorries told TalkTV that “the last thing I would want to do would be to cause a by-election” in her seat.

Speaking to the broadcaster on Friday morning, Ms Dorries said she had not heard anything but did not expect to be entering the Lords “any time soon”.

“I know nothing,” she said.

“There is a process and the last thing I would want to do would be to cause a by-election in my constituency.

I don’t believe I will be going into the House of Lords any time soon.”

The Times earlier reported Ms Dorries, as well as Alok Sharma – president of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, were struck from Mr Johnson’s trimmed-down honours list to avoid potentially damaging by-elections as they would have stood down to take the peerages.

The prospects of such an electoral test would be more challenging for Mr Sunak in Mr Sharma’s marginal Reading West constituency, where he has a 4,000-vote majority over Labour.

Ms Dorries, who hosts a talk show on TalkTV, has been an MP since 2005.

She has been a vocal critic of Rishi Sunak’s government since he entered Number 10 and is set to release a book on the downfall of Mr Johnson.