Nadine Dorries has blasted Rishi Sunak after a leaked document suggested she will be blamed if the Tories lose the Mid Bedfordshire by-election.
The memo to Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the delay over the former culture secretary resigning sparked “enormous discontent”.
But Ms Dorries insisted the “truth” is that voters are unhappy with the Conservatives following the recent period of turbulence which saw two elected leaders ousted.
The Boris Johnson loyalist also pointed out Mr Sunak’s popularity ratings and claimed voters do not see him as “a man of integrity”.
Ms Dorries said on X, formerly Twitter: “Of course No 10 are planning to blame me. Rishi’s personal rating on the negative floor at minus 25 as Starmers leaps upwards.
“Labour Party polling 20 percent ahead of Tories – but it was always going to be my fault if Tories lose Mid Beds, never Rishi’s.
“The truth is – lots of anger on the doorstep about how the party / MPs have behaved and Conservative voters choosing to stay at home and withdraw their support. Was always going to happen.
“Labour and Lib Dems selected dreadful candidates who the people of Mid Beds would never vote for (outside of their core political supporters) and have fought like rats in a sack.
“Mid Beds will be a Tory hold (just) the hard-won majority of almost 26k squandered and thrown away by No 10 and the win on Thursday will be brought home on the shoulders of an amazing candidate in Festus Akinbusoye.
“The people of Mid Beds view Festus as a man of integrity, a quality they don’t attribute to Sunak, but they will trust Festus to be outspoken and genuine because that honesty and independence is what they value and will reward again, at the next GE.”
The leaked memo, reported by Sky News, outlined concerns the Tories’ vote share in this Thursday’s by-elections in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth, where Chris Pincher resigned over groping allegations, could halve to around 30 percent.
It said: “We’ve always known the cause of these by-elections – i.e. MPs associated with our party’s challenges last year standing down who are personally associated with negative news stories – would hinder our performance.”
The memo adds: “But more impactfully in Mid Beds, voters’ dissatisfaction with Nadine Dorries’ decision to delay her resignation has created enormous discontent with the party more generally.
“Despite positive views towards both Festus and the prime minister, many voters are still telling canvassers and callers they’re determined to use their ‘abstention’ as a tool to express this discontent with both the politics of last year and Nadine Dorries personally.”
Ms Dorries announced in June she would quit her Mid Bedfordshire seat in protest at not getting a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list but she faced criticism when it took her months to formally do so.
