Did somebody say civil war?
Culture minister Nadine Dorries has reportedly been kicked out of a Tory WhatsApp group for praising the Prime Minister. This is all very Handforth Parish Council, isn’t it?
As reported by Sky News’ Sam Coates, the 64-year-old Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was involved in what seemed to be a relatively heated exchange in a Conservative group chat labelled ‘Clean Global Brexit‘.
As you can see below, a number of MPs are discussing Lord Frost’s resignation as Brexit minister – the overwhelming consensus being in defence of the Baron – when Dorries decides to interject, much to her colleagues’ chagrin:
EXC – big row in a Tory Whatsapp “Clean Global Brexit” group with over 100 MPs
It leads leads to removal of Nadine Dorries after she defending the PM … and then Steve Baker declaring “enough is enough”
Exchanges here: pic.twitter.com/SsktMPJNSW
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) December 18, 2021
As Andrew Bridgen (MP for NW Leicestershire), Marcus Fysh (Yeovil and Leave Means Leave advocate) and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds and VP of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists) defend the Brexit minister, going so far as to call him “hero”, Dorries instead chooses to spotlight Boris Johnson as the saviour.
Dismissing the suggestion that his departure delivers a “further hammer blow to the PM”, she instead claims that “The hero is the Prime Minister who delivered Brexit”.
She even goes on to say that she has now become aware that “regicide is in the DNA of the Conservative party, but a bit of loyalty to the person who won an 83 [seat] majority and delivered Brexit wouldn’t go a miss”.
Regicide? Wow, some of them actually think he’s a king.
This shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, of course, as only last month Dorries said that the ongoing Tory sleaze-fest wouldn’t hurt the party and it’s clear that her allegiance to the PM hasn’t wavered.
The same can’t be said for the likes of Steve Baker and co., though, as the MP for Wycombe proceeds to eject her from the 100+ group chat as he states “Enough is enough” and is then thanked by Bridgen, who simply comments: “About time, thanks Steve”.
As the rift in the government continues to deepen, the rhetoric revealed within this chat would seem to suggest that Johnson now has just as many dissenters in the party as he does outside of it, with the majority of people now believing she should resign.
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