Nadine Dorries is to stand down as culture secretary ahead of a cabinet reshuffle by Liz Truss, sources close to Ms Dorries said.
Penny Mordaunt, a former international development secretary who was an early favourite in the Tory leadership race, has been considered as a replacement for Ms Dorries, The Times reported.
Ms Dorries did not intend her resignation to be taken as a swipe at the incoming prime minister, one friend told the Mail.
“Nadine has agonised over this as she is 100 per cent supportive of Liz. But she has decided now is the right time to leave cabinet,” they said.
Ms Truss will tomorrow start announcing her cabinet after being formally appointed prime minister by the Queen at Balmoral.
She is expected to settle in to her premiership with a reshuffle and already has some gaps to fill after the resignation of Priti Patel, the home secretary, and Nigel Adams, a Cabinet Office minister.
The departure of Ms Dorries leaves several big cultural questions hanging for the new government. The forthright Liverpudlian threw herself headfirst into the so-called “culture wars”, attacking the BBC for “groupthink” and supposed left-wing bias on social media platforms.
The long-term future of the BBC remains in question, with a government review of the public broadcaster’s funding model thrown into doubt after Mr Johnson’s resignation.
Ms Dorries was known for standing firmly by Boris Johnson even after scores of ministers and PPSs resigned to force him from office.
Days before Mr Johnson finally left office two months after conceding he could not continue, Ms Dorries said he was the most successful prime minister in a generation.
“He gets the big decisions absolutely right … I think we’ll regret removing him as our prime minister,” she told BBC Newsnight.
Sources said Ms Dorries was planning to return to the backbenches – though she is strongly tipped to be in line for a peerage from Mr Johnson in his resignation honours, meaning there could soon be a by-election in the Mid Bedfordshire seat she has held since 2005.
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