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Tories currently set to 'absolutely lose' a general election 'because of what we did to Boris Johnson', says Dorries

4 October 2022, 19:49 | Updated: 4 October 2022, 21:15

The Tories should never of removed Boris Johnson 'the person Labour feared most'.

By Daisy Stephens

The Conservative party is currently set to "absolutely lose" the next election mainly because MPs ousted Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries has told LBC.

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Speaking to Iain Dale, the Mid Bedfordshire MP said Mr Johnson was "our most electorally successfully Prime Minister for a generation".

She said the position the Tories now find themselves in - lagging behind Labour in the polls - was "the only place we were only ever going to be" once they removed him from office.

"The day Boris Johnson was removed from power by Conservative MPs, we were five points behind in the polls and as I said, that is a poll deficit that in the heat of a general election campaign would have burnt away like morning mist on a summer dawn," she said.

"It would have been absolutely fine, we would have done very well in a general election.

"I don't know where we are today, I think it was 28 points behind last time I looked.

"That was the only place we were only ever going to be once we removed, after 12 years in power, our most successful Prime Minister.

"So a lot of where we are now, a lot of the position we find ourselves in now, is because of what we did to Boris.

"And the fact that we removed Boris Johnson, the person Labour feared the most... Conservative MPs, this is of their own making."

LBC exclusive: Iain Dale interviews Nadine Dorries

Ms Dorries said it was undemocratic for the Tories to replace their leader and their key policies without an election - something she has been vocal about on Twitter in recent days.

However she denied she was calling for Britain to go to the polls.

"I'm not calling for a general election because with the poll rating at the moment, we'd absolutely lose it," she said.

"Conservative MPs removed our most electorally successfully Prime Minister for a generation in Boris Johnson and we replaced him with Liz Truss, who I did support.

"We can't remove a Prime Minister who won the biggest majority in 40 years - the biggest majority since I think 1979 - we can't replace him when that was less than three years ago and replace all of the policies as well, which is what Liz has said she's going to do."

She said Tory voters at the last general election voted for either Boris or the Conservative manifesto.

"For the new Prime Minister to the remove the policies does not fit with what is expected of a democratic state," she said.

Nadine Dorries: It is not acceptable to remove the most successful Tory PM and his policies

But when Iain put it to her that changing leadership again was the only alternative to changing policies, Ms Dorries claimed she still supported Ms Truss,

"I back Liz," she said.

"I'd just like everyone to calm down slightly.

"And to not just throw the baby out with the bath water, which is what's happening now.

"And to think a bit more carefully about what it was people voted for in 2019, how they voted... and to think a little bit more about that before we go too gung-ho with policies that people are not going to vote for and not going to vote in the future."

Ms Dorries also said Mr Johnson also wanted Tories to support the Prime Minister.

"The only thing I've heard Boris say since the day Liz was elected was 'back Liz," she said when Iain asked if Mr Johnson would consider returning.

"He even said that to me this morning - 'back Liz, back Liz'.

"All he's concerned about is the survival of the Conservative party and winning the next election."

Dorries' comments come in the midst of the Tory Party Conference, with the party's U-turn narrowing Labour's lead from a historic 33-points to 25-points, according to the survey by Savanta ComRes.

“People are struggling.We’re in a global cost of living crisis," said Dorries.

She also reflected on the government's proposed changes to job seekers' rules.

Referencing the new rules – which require claimants to engage in 12 hours of contact with ‘work coaches’, up from around 8 hours – Dorries labelled her party's calls for claimants to 'work harder' a "crass" thing to say.

“We can’t bring in policies that amend the way people are paid their benefits. We can’t tell people to just go out and get better paid jobs – that is actually a crass thing to say to a group of people who don’t even have the opportunity to do that.

“I think what Liz needs to do is stop right now” added the Tory MP.

She instead suggested the Prime Minister needed to “take stock of where she is, to learn from the mistakes of the past few weeks [and] to look at the manifesto that people elected us on.”

“Let’s not let the new leader get rid of the policies too, because for me, removing Boris and removing the policies is a recipe for disaster.”