Now Nadine Dorries says she will stand down at the next election – but what does it mean for the party?

It may mean some brilliant future leader could arrive, unnoticed, stepping over their fallen comrades and being part of the rebuild, writes Sean O’Grady

As Dorries herself says, the Tory party doesn’t seem likely to be in government for much longer (PA Archive)

Nadine Dorries has become the latest of 19 Conservative MPs to declare that they are voluntarily standing down at the next general election. What’s going on?

So, why is Nadine Dorries going?

She says it’s because the Tories dumped Boris Johnson (who she thinks is the Messiah, rather than a very naughty boy), meaning that, in her view, her party is doomed at the next election: “It’s 24 points behind. And that, my friends, could be described as terminal.” A return to cabinet for Dorries under Rishi Sunak seems unlikely, as does a Johnson comeback. There are also as-yet-unsubstantiated suggestions that her Mid Bedfordshire seat, far safer than Johnson’s in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, is being vacated so that Johnson can make a “chicken run” and become the local candidate.