Tory party pounces on awol Nadine Dorries
Tory firebrand Nadine Dorries has been suspended from the Conservative party after jetting off to Australia to appear in this year's I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Sir George Young has suspended the whip and will have an "urgent meeting with her" with her on her return, the Conservative party said in a statement issued this evening.
The move follows a day of outrage in parliament and online, after it emerged Dorries had left Britain for up to a month without even informing her local party association.
"The concern is that she will not be doing parliamentary or constituency business in the meantime," a Tory party spokesperson said.
Paul Duckett, chairman of Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association, said he was prepared to consider a range of sanctions, including deselection at the next general election.
Dorries will be paid no more than £40,000 for her jaunt on reality TV, boosting her £65,738 salary. She intends to draw her monthly salary, her office confirmed earlier.
But her decision means she will miss critical Commons votes, including one on the EU budget and another on George Osborne's autumn statement on December 5th.
"I'm doing the show because 16 million people watch it. Rather than MPs talking to other MPs about issues in parliament, I think MPs should be going to where people go," she told the Mail newspaper.
"I'm not going in there to upset people, but I have opinions. There are certain causes that I'm interested in, one of which is '20 weeks'."
Dorries wants to see the legal limit for abortion reduced from 24 to 20 weeks.
She added: "I will be talking about this issue around the campfire. I hope there will be some lively, heated debates."
Dorries attracted the ire of Twitter – most notably former MP Louise Mensch, who had been attacked by Dorries for being "void of principle" in the summer.
Mensch tweeted: "Just imagining the scene in the whips' office if I said I wanted to skip Parliament for weeks to go on a celebrity TV show. #notpretty"
Others criticised her for seeking fame on the show, watched by 16 million viewers.
"While she is being a Z-list celebrity, her constituents will be without an MP," the TaxPayers' Alliance told the Sun.
One constituent, Nicola Neal, tweeted: "My MP Nadine Dorries Just arrived in Oz for I'm a celeb! No wonder she hasnt replied to email about my poorly boy. Busy eating bugs! Thanks!"
Home secretary Theresa May said: "Frankly, I think an MP's job is in their constituency and in the House of Commons."
Sarah Wollaston, a fellow Conservative backbencher, tweeted: "We need more women in Parliament but it doesn't help if they make themselves ridiculous by swanning off to the jungle."
Dorries' disillusionment with the "cynicism" of her parliamentary colleagues may have helped push her away from Westminster and search for a break.
"I think [my faith] takes such a beating in parliament," she told politics.co.uk in an interview last month.
"It's such a cynical world. It's very hard to be a practising Christian in parliament. I think it's almost impossible, actually."
Dorries is not the first politician to appear on the show. Former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik appeared in the 2010 edition of the show after losing his Welsh seat.
He lasted two weeks, a period chiefly marked by a memorable incident in which he was bitten by a snake.
Dorries is not a complete stranger to reality TV. She featured in the 2010 Channel 4 programme Tower Block Of Commons, in which she stayed with two out-of-work sisters in west London.
The experience did not go well for anyone concerned. Dorries was accused of cheating after producing £50 she had concealed in her bra and was subsequently labelled a "lying two-faced b***" by one of her hosts.
Bookmaker William Hill is offering 20/1 on the Mid Bedfordshire MP winning I'm A Celebrity… – and just 3/1 that she will be first to be booted off.
