EX-CABINET Minister Nadine Dorries has announced she's standing down as MP "immediately" as she says "it's been an honour".
The bombshell news will trigger a by-election headache for Rishi Sunak.
Dorries, 66, announced the move with “immediate effect” in a shock move amid speculation she had been taken off Boris Johnson’s resignation list.
She wrote on social media: "I have today informed the chief whip that I am standing down as the MP of 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."
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The Tories will now be defending a 24,000 majority in the mid-Bedfordshire seat.
Dorries had been a defender of Mr Johnson throughout his time in Number 10 and has been a staunch critic of the current Prime Minister.
Reports had suggested that both Dorries and her former Cabinet Minister colleague Alok Sharma had been taken off Mr Johnson’s 50-person list.
They had been expected to sit in the House of Lords which would have triggered the two by-elections.
But their names were understood to have been resubmitted to the House of Lords Appointments Committee for vetting.
Speaking to TalkTV today, she said she didn’t expect to enter the Lords “any time soon”.
She said: “I know nothing. 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.”
Dorries had been an MP for the area since 2005, and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for 12 months from September 2021.
