Nadine Dorries calls on Liz Truss to hold a general election

‘If Liz wants a whole new mandate, she must take to the country’, ex-culture secretary says

Nadine Dorries, the former cabinet minister and a leading Boris Johnson ally, has called on Liz Truss to hold a general election to obtain a mandate for her policies.

Ms Dorries, who backed Ms Truss in the leadership election, said there was “widespread dismay” at the prime minister for ditching key parts of her predecessor’s agenda.

She complained that “three years of work” had effectively been put on hold.

She added: “No one asked for this. C4 (Channel 4) sale, online safety, BBC licence fee review, all signed off by Cabinet all ready to go, all stopped.

“If Liz wants a whole new mandate, she must take to the country.”

Ms Dorries has become increasingly critical of the prime minister in recent days. At the weekend, she accused Ms Truss of throwing Kwasi Kwarteng "under a bus", by saying the decision to cut the income tax paid by the richest had been made by the chancellor and not the cabinet.

She tweeted that "one of" Mr Johnson’s faults had been that “he could sometimes be too loyal".

"However, there is a balance and throwing your Chancellor under a bus on the first day of conference really isn’t it," she said.

Fingers crossed, she said, "things improve and settle down from now". Just 24 hours later, she sent her tweet suggesting Ms Truss should call a general election.

This chart shows political parties’ changing fortunes in the polls from April (Press Association Images)

In response, her former cabinet colleague Michael Gove said that “now is not the time” for an election.

The former education secretary told a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference that the new PM was “entitled” to amend policies.

“To take a cooking analogy, while the aroma of the broth is the same and the basic ingredients are retained, you might add a little bit of paprika here or a little less garlic there,” said Mr Gove.

“That is what a new prime minister is entitled to do and should do. I’m sure it will be the case that Liz will be carrying forward lots of good work that Nadine did at DCMS.”