Nadine Dorries has confirmed she was requested by Liz Truss to remain on as Tradition Secretary however selected as an alternative to return to the backbenches when the brand new PM takes the reins.
The Tory MP – who was a loyal ally to Boris Johnson throughout his tenure and backed Ms Truss for chief – mentioned she has determined to go away the Cupboard “after a lot reflection”.
She mentioned she can be “higher positioned” to help the brand new PM from outdoors the highest workforce.
It's anticipated that she's going to now be given a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours checklist, triggering a by-election in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
In her letter of resignation to the outgoing prime minister, shared on social media, she mentioned it had been an “honour” to serve in his Authorities.
“I do know that Liz can be a worthy successor; defending your legacy and offering each management and imaginative and prescient for the nation,” she mentioned.
“I'm humbled that your successor has prolonged her confidence in me by asking me to stay as Secretary of State for DCMS.
“Nonetheless, after a lot reflection, I'm writing to you to resign as Secretary of State for Digital, Tradition, Media and Sport on the level at which your successor is appointed.
“I've personally assured our soon-to-be prime minister that I can be higher positioned to help her from outdoors of the Cupboard.”
Through the management marketing campaign, Ms Dorries was an outspoken critic of Rishi Sunak – in a single controversial tweet likening him to Brutus stabbing Julius Caesar over the way in which he had turned on Mr Johnson.
She accused fellow Tory MPs of staging a “coup” towards the outgoing PM, telling BBC Panorama: “I used to be fairly surprised that there have been individuals who thought that eradicating the Prime Minister who received the largest majority that we’ve had since Margaret Thatcher in lower than three years.
“Simply the anti-democratic nature of what they’re doing alone was sufficient to alarm me. And for me it was a coup.”
She was additionally amongst Mr Johnson’s most outspoken defenders in the course of the ‘partygate’ saga, calling an investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether or not he lied to MPs a “witch hunt”, including it represented the “most egregious abuse of energy”.
Ms Dorries was appointed Tradition Secretary in September final 12 months, having beforehand served as well being minister.
She was concerned in drawing up laws to curb social media firms via the On-line Security Invoice and led controversial strikes to privatise Channel 4.
In her letter to Mr Johnson, she mentioned: “After I arrived within the division the On-line Security Invoice had been kicked into the lengthy grass.
“We picked it up, we ran with it and I'm proud that we've got a Invoice which is able to maintain tech giants to account and shield the lives of thousands and thousands of youngsters and younger folks.
“The eyes of the world are on this Invoice and we, the UK, are main the way in which.”
Her time period was additionally marked by quite a lot of gaffes, primarily complicated rugby league with rugby union at an occasion to advertise the upcoming Rugby League World Cup.
Ms Dorries surprised a rugby league viewers in St Helens by referring to Jonny Wilkinson’s match-winning drop aim for England within the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup closing in Sydney.
She later mentioned this helped increase consideration for the game, telling MPs “rugby league has by no means had a lot publicity and a lot consideration for the sport”.
Ms Dorries was born in 1957 in Liverpool and grew up on a council property, which she writes about on her official web site, saying: “I'm one of many luckiest folks alive, to have grown up on a Liverpool council property from the Fifties to Seventies.”
She began her working life as a nurse previous to pursuing a profession in enterprise, opening a toddler daycare enterprise earlier than changing into a director at Bupa.
Her profession as a author has seen her creator greater than 10 books, amongst them The 4 Streets Quartet novels, in addition to The Angels sequence in regards to the nurses of Pretty Lane. Her assortment additionally consists of The Tarabeg Trilogy.
Earlier than being elected to Parliament as MP for Mid Bedfordshire in 2005, she labored for 3 years as an adviser to the previous shadow house secretary and shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin.
Ms Dorries was thrust into the limelight in 2012 when she was suspended from the Conservative Get together for showing on ITV’s I’m a Superstar… Get Me Out Of Right here with out informing the chief whip first.
Nonetheless, she was readmitted to the celebration in Could 2013.
She has been embroiled in a string of controversies all through her tenure as an MP.
In 2009, when MPs’ bills claims have been revealed by the Day by day Telegraph, she admitted she had bought taxpayers to foot the invoice for a misplaced £2,190 deposit on a rented flat.
And in 2010, she was rebuked by then-parliamentary requirements commissioner John Lyon for deceptive her constituents on her weblog about how a lot time she spent in mid-Bedfordshire, admitting that it was “70% fiction”.
The mom to 3 daughters has additionally continuously been at odds with what she considered her celebration’s picture, memorably referring to David Cameron and George Osborne as “smug posh boys”, whereas describing herself as “a traditional mom who comes from a poor background and who didn’t go to a fancy college”.
Having bought greater than 2.5 million copies of her books, the 65-year-old’s departure from Authorities is anticipated to allow her to return to writing.