Nadine Dorries has accused Rishi Sunak of “embarrassing schoolboy politics” following his by-election jibe in the Commons.
The Prime Minister took aim at the former Culture Secretary during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
Mr Sunak welcomed Alistair Strathern by saying: “I suspect the new member for Mid Beds may actually support me a little bit more than the last one!”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Dorries branded the jibe “embarrassing schoolboy politics”.
She added: “One of the better jokes at PMQs but with Rishi, the bar is so very low.”
The gag in the Commons was greeted with laughter from across the house, including a chortling Mr Strathern and Tory frontbenchers.
When she resigned as MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Ms Dorries blasted Mr Sunak for “demeaning his office” and warned “history will not judge you kindly”.
Ms Dorries announced she was quitting her seat with immediate effect in June after being declined a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, although despite that assertion she stayed on as an MP until nearly the end of August.
Labour have delivered a historic defeat to the Conservatives by winning Mid Bedfordshire for the first time in the constituency’s century-long history.
With the vote triggered by Nadine Dorries’ long-burning resignation, it was the largest majority in terms of votes overturned by the party at a by-election since 1945.
Rishi Sunak’s challenge to turn around his party’s prospects looked even harder when Labour’s Alistair Strathern secured a swing of 20.5 per cent to win by 1,192 votes.
In its 105 years of existence, Labour had never won Mid Bedfordshire. They were 24,664 votes behind the Conservatives at the last general election.
Ms Dorries had held Mid Bedfordshire since 2005, winning at the 2019 general election with 60 per cent of the vote.
But there was clear anger in the constituency about the “absentee MP”. She had not spoken in the Commons since early July last year, but found time to present her TalkTV show.
