Nadine Dorries is to stand down as culture secretary ahead of a cabinet reshuffle by Liz Truss, sources close to Ms Dorries said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ms Dorries did not intend her resignation to be taken as a swipe at the incoming prime minister, one friend told the Mail.<\/p>\n
\u201cNadine 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,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Ms Truss will tomorrow start announcing her cabinet after being formally appointed prime minister by the Queen at Balmoral.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cculture wars\u201d, attacking the BBC for \u201cgroupthink\u201d and supposed left-wing bias on social media platforms.<\/p>\n
The long-term future of the BBC remains in question, with a government review of the public broadcaster\u2019s funding model thrown into doubt after Mr Johnson\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n
Ms Dorries was known for standing firmly by Boris Johnson even after scores of ministers and PPSs resigned to force him from office.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets the big decisions absolutely right … I think we\u2019ll regret removing him as our prime minister,\u201d she told BBC Newsnight.<\/p>\n
Sources said Ms Dorries was planning to return to the backbenches \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
More follows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n