Dorries shreds ‘void of principle’ Mensch
By politics.co.uk staff
Nadine Dorries has turned her fire on Louise Mensch in a jaw-dropping, no-holds-barred denunciation of the outgoing Corby MP.
The Mid-Bedfordshire MP has previously called David Cameron and George Osborne "arrogant posh boys", but that insult pales into insignificance when compared with today's attack against Mensch.
In a column for the ConservativeHome blog she accuses Mensch of being "void of principle" for her loyalist stance to the coalition and accuses her of always having "put her own ambitions first".
The Corby MP is standing down this autumn to relocate to New York to be with her husband, having confessed that she is struggling to balance work and family life.
Dorries said Mensch's early exit from the culture, media and sport committee's grilling with News International's James Murdoch, on the grounds that she had to pick her children up from school, was "one of the most unprofessional and dignified comments ever heard in a select committee".
"Louise Mensch announced that she had to leave a crucial, televised hearing involving the Murdochs, in order to do the school run," Dorries wrote.
"As she left she schmoozed to James Murdoch, in the witness chair at the time, 'I believe we have children the same age'.
"This was stomach turning for female MPs, who act in a professional manner in order not to be judged lacking against our male peers, knowing that hell would freeze over before any male MP would behave in the same way."
Dorries accused Mensch of not working on Thursdays. She had in fact been given permission to return to her constituency a day earlier than usual, on Thursday, to spend more time with her children.
"She is a former MP who has resigned midterm, supposedly for the sake of her family and has, without doubt, handed her seat to Labour," Dorries wrote. Labour's candidate Andy Sawford is expected to take the marginal constituency in the November 15th by-election
Dorries added that this was "a pill very hard for some to swallow when she appears on her social media site and Twitter by the minute and has no problem leaving her family, popping up on the media on a regular basis, even to condemn Prince Harry".
The Sun newspaper's decision to publish images of the prince in a state of undress had been defended by Mensch, who argued there was a public interest in the publication of the photographs.
Dorries disagreed. "I would ask the former MP, next time she wants to open her mouth about a boy who lost his mother at the hands of the media in a way which shocked the world, she might want to look to her own heart and wonder how she would feel?" she wrote.
"After all, it's not as though Prince Harry has admitted to taking illegal drugs, abandoned his post, or failed to turn up to work every Thursday in the style of Louise Mensch, now is it?"
Mensch tweeted this morning: "waking up to find self on the Nadine Dorries naughty step. which is a pity as I spend my entire time worrying about what she thinks. (ahem)"
