Nadine Dorries

Nadine Vanessa Dorries (' 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.

Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957.

Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator.

Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such.

She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School.

She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital.

From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report.

In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine.

In 1987 she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents.

She sold the company in 1998.

The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.

As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000.

Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office.

Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse.

She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.

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 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.

According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries's parents divorced during her adolescence.

While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father.

He died at the age of 42.

In 2016, Dorries said that she had been abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Rev William Cameron, who was made priest-in-charge at St Mary's Anglican church in Halewood in 1966, when she was nine.

She was too ashamed to report this to her parents or authorities, but stories of child sexual abuse described in novels she wrote as an adult are based on her own experience.

After primary school, she attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School before moving with her family to Runcorn.

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.