NADINE Dorries “has got to go” after being “absolutely absent” from her job as an MP, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader called on Rishi Sunak to “force the issue” and ensure the former Tory culture secretary vacates her Mid Bedfordshire seat.
Ms Dorries said in June she was resigning with “immediate effect” after being denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
However she changed her mind a week later and said she was staying in her £86,584-a-year job until she got an explanation.
She has not spoken in the Commons for more than a year and last voted in April, but has kept working as a host on Talk TV and newspaper columnist.
The influential Conservative Home website today suggested she could be removed by a simple Commons motion ordering her expulsion.
The device was last used in 1954 to remove the Tory MP Peter Baker after he was jailed for seven years for forgery, leading to a by-election.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant has also suggested using an 1801 rule to suspend her for more than 10 days, thereby triggering a recall petition and possible by-election.
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On Monday, Shefford Town Council in Mid Bedfordshire joined Flitwick Town Council in criticising Ms Dorries for a “continuing lack of representation” as their local MP.
Ms Dorries, 66, has been the MP for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005 and held it at the last general election with a majority over Labour of 24,664.
Speaking on LBC, Sir Keir said the seat needed “an MP who will actually stand up for them”.
He said of Ms Dorries: “I think she should just go. I have been in Mid Bedfordshire talking to some of her constituents.”
“We have got Peter Kyle who is the MP for Brighton (Hove), he is our political lead in Mid Bedfordshire and he is doing more work than Nadine Dorries up there.
“She said she would resign with immediate effect. I don’t know what her dictionary definition of immediate effect is, but 10 weeks after the event doesn’t seem to be immediate effect.
“She has got to go, give Mid Bedfordshire an MP who will actually stand up for them, fight for them, because at the moment she is absolutely absent.
“I would say to Rishi Sunak, get a grip of this.
“This is one of your MPs, do something about it, force the issue and get on with it.”
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Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick recently said it was time for his colleague to quit, as her constituents were not “being properly represented”.
On Monday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked if he would back a move in Parliament to force Ms Dorries to step down.
“I think you’ve heard from a number of ministers on this already. I don’t think I’ve much to add beyond what we’ve said before,” he told reporters.
Famously loyal to Mr Johnson, Ms Dorries’s new book, The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, is slated for publication shortly before the Tory conference this autumn.
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