Expelled from the jungle: Dorries goes to war with Mitchell
By politics.co.uk staff
Nadine Dorries has entered into a war of words with Andrew Mitchell, just hours after being voted out of I'm A Celebrity.
The Mid Bedfordshire MP accused the former Tory chief whip of being "clever with words" when he said he had not given her permission to go on the programme.
"I find it quite disappointing now that the spotlight has come on to this, that he has chosen – and particularly after all the support I gave him during his own particular troubles recently – that he has tried to be clever with words, and say that he didn't give me permission for the show," she told ITV's Daybreak.
"No he didn't give me permission for the show, but he did give me permission to have the month away. It epitomises politicians."
The anti-abortion campaigner was the first person to be voted off the programme last night, after being asked to do several 'bushtucker trials', including one contest in which she ate an ostrich's anus.
"I actually came here self-important for a few days but I'm not now," she told hosts Ant and Dec after her ejection.
"I needed that missile and I think all MPs need that. I came from a council estate and never thought I was like that but I was. I'm not now."
Asked if she had succeeded in spreading her political views, she replied: "I don't know what people have seen but I have had some fascinating conversations in there. It's been a fascinating experience.
"I think it is important that MPs realise that you need to go where the public go. More people vote on X Factor and I'm A Celebrity than they do in the general elections. MPs need to go where people vote."
But polling conducted by Tory donor Michael Ashcroft suggests Dorries may have failed in her bid to make MPs more relatable.
A survey of 1,500 adults in her constituency found nearly all of them knew she had gone to Australia but over half disapproved, many of them strongly.
Older voters were likely to be most irritated by the decision, but even younger voters were unimpressed.
Most constituents also said David Cameron was right to suspend her from the party.
