Nadine Dorries

The Right Honourable Nadine Dorries
Official portrait, 2021
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
In office 15 September 2021 – 6 September 2022
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Oliver Dowden
Succeeded by	Michelle Donelan
Minister of State for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health[a]
In office 27 July 2019 – 15 September 2021
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Jackie Doyle-Price
Succeeded by	Gillian Keegan[b]
Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire
In office 5 May 2005 – 29 August 2023
Preceded by	Jonathan Sayeed
Succeeded by	Alistair Strathern
Personal details
Born	Nadine Vanessa Bargery (1957-05-21) 21 May 1957 (age 67) Liverpool, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Paul Dorries ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 2007)​
Children	3
Education	Halewood Grange Comprehensive School
Alma mater	Warrington General Hospital (nurse trainee)
Occupation	Politician nurse businesswoman author
Signature
Nadine Dorries's voice Dorries explains the Online Safety Bill Recorded 31 March 2022

Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British author and a former politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023 for the Conservative Party.

Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's district of Anfield and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.

As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the chief whip. The whip was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.

In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health. In May 2020, she was promoted to a minister of state. In Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Despite being invited to continue in the position, she resigned as Culture Secretary ahead of the formation of the Truss ministry, after Liz Truss took over from Johnson on 6 September 2022.

On 9 June 2023, Dorries announced her intention to stand down as an MP with immediate effect. She later changed her position, saying that she would not proceed with her resignation until she had received information relating to why she had been refused a peerage in Boris Johnson's resignation honours. Following mounting pressure, she formally vacated her seat on 29 August. Dorries had not spoken in the House of Commons since June 2022, or worked on a select committee, and was criticised by both Tory and opposition MPs for allegedly abandoning her constituents.^[1][2][3][4]

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