Former Cabinet Minister Nadine Dorries has claimed the same secretive cabal of Tories who brought down Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Iain Duncan Smith have already agreed on who should lead the party after the next election.
Ms Dorries, whose new book “The Plot” focuses the downfall of Boris Johnson, claims a shadowy group called “The Movement” is behind much of the Tory leadership chaos of the last 20 years.
Ms Dorries says that Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove, Dougie Smith and a mafia-like figure called “Dr No” have consistently worked together to take down Tory leaders and Prime Minister with whom they do not agree.
Her book reports that after Mr Johnson made Mr Cummings his chief of staff in No. 10, “The Movement” instigated its plan to replace him immediately after the 2019 General Election.
This morning she claimed that same group has already “groomed” a top Tory to take over the party once Mr Sunak has lost the next election.
Speaking on the BBC, the former Culture Secretary was speaking about Suella Braverman’s latest controversy when she was asked whether the Home Secretary is backed by The Movement.
“Absolutely not, no.
“Kemi Badenoch is the person they’ve been preparing for years. She is very close friends with Dougie Smith and other people that I’ve mentioned, and she is the one that they’ve been grooming to take over for a number of years now.”
Asked by TalkTV whether Rishi Sunak is therefore in danger from Ms Badenoch, the Trade and Business Secretary, Ms Dorries said the Prime Minister “doesn’t realise he’s been totally played and totally used”.
“I am sure Rishi is a very good and honourable person, but he was very politically naive… the thing about Rishi is he’s like a boyband member on autotune – he’s got the looks, he’s got the suit, he’s got the background, he’s got money, he fits all the demographic but he’s very politically naive.
“These people have captured him. When that stuff came out about his wife’s non-dom status – my theory is when Rishi’s star was rising what they don’t like is someone’s star rising too high.”
“I don’t think Rishi realises it was just to deflate his tires slightly and make sure he still needed those people – Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove, Dougie Smith and the others.”
In February this year, the Express revealed WhatsApp messages from Kemi Badenoch revealing she played a significant role in the coup that brought down Boris Johnson.
She was one of many ministers to resign in the wake of the Chris Pincher scandal, however messages showed she was also active in pushing others to resign as well.
Ms Badenoch was seen saying: “C’mon Danny Kruger, you know you want to”.
She also asked Richard Harrington if he had quit and shouted at Sarah Dines MP: “DO IT DO IT DO IT”.
When Ms Dines refused to resign, she was removed from the group by Ms Badenoch alongside Eddie Hughes and Lord Greenhalgh, all of whom chose to remain loyal to Boris Johnson.
Michael Gove advisor Henry Newman was also seen in the WhatsApp chat, and sent a praying emoji to Richard Harrington after he confirmed he had resigned.
