Nadine Dorries has been given her own chat show – and there are no prizes for guessing who her first guest is.
The former cabinet minister will interview her close friend and ally Boris Johnson on Talk TV’s ‘Friday Night With Nadine’ show.
Dorries has never hidden her admiration for the ex-prime minister, and recently warned her party that it would “die” unless he was made leader again.
The Mid Bedfordshire MP said: “As someone who’s never been afraid to speak their mind, I’m delighted to be joining the team at TalkTV for Friday Night With Nadine, where I’ll be putting my 23-year political career and experiences at the despatch box to good use.
“Boris Johnson continues to dominate so much of the political narrative since his departure from No10. Now’s the time to find out what he really thinks about a whole range of pressing issues.”
The show will be broadcast on February 3.
Dorries, who is tipped to receive a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours list, will be hoping it goes better than her last attempt at being a Talk TV presenter.
Standing in for Piers Morgan, she tripped over her words as she introduced the show’s second conversation topic.
“Sorry, I’ve just completely messed that up,” she was heard muttering, as co-presenter Emily Sheffield urged her: “Keep going.”
James Cleverly has insisted that tax affairs are “private matters” during a grilling over the finances of the Tory party chairman.
The foreign secretary stressed that Nadhim Zahawi made a “careless error” after it was revealed he paid a settlement to HM Revenue & Customs in relation to a shareholding in YouGov.
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Zahawi is under pressure over allegations that he tried to avoid tax and has now had to pay it back as part of a multi-million pound settlement.
Cleverly said he did not know the size of the tax settlement with HMRC or whether Zahawi paid a penalty.
“I don’t know more than is in his statement,” Cleverly said.
Pressed on whether Zahawi should reveal more information, Cleverly said: “People’s taxes are private matters. I know that as politicians we, quite rightly, are expected to have a higher level of disclosure than perhaps other people might do.
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“Nadhim has issued a statement where he has admitted that he made a careless error, that this is now resolved.”
Cleverly also swerved questions over whether Zahawi negotiated his tax settlement while he was chancellor, or what Rishi Sunak knew when he appointed him party chairman.
“I’m not an investigator,” he added when it was put to him that he was there to speak on behalf of the government.
Asked whether Zahawi will survive in his role until Wednesday, Cleverly said: “What else am I going to say other than yes, because he’s a very, very effective minister.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly faced a grilling
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Zahawi, who attends Sunak’s Cabinet, released a statement to “address some of the confusion about my finances”.
However, the statement raised further questions, including whether Zahawi negotiated the settlement when he was chancellor and in charge of the country’s taxation.
Claims started emerging when Zahawi was made chancellor by Boris Johnson last summer, with reports suggesting Cabinet Office officials had alerted the then-prime minister to the HMRC dispute.
Zahawi did not disclose the size of the settlement – reported to be an estimated £4.8 million including a 30% penalty – or confirm whether he paid a fine.
Tax lawyer Dan Neidle, who has been working to expose the minister’s tax affairs, estimated that he owed £3.7 million.
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In an unusual move, Zahawi did not take founder shares when he set up YouGov, saying in his statement that his father took shares “in exchange for some capital and his invaluable guidance”.
He continued: “Twenty one years later, when I was being appointed chancellor of the Exchequer, questions were being raised about my tax affairs. I discussed this with the Cabinet Office at the time.
“Following discussions with HMRC, they agreed that my father was entitled to founder shares in YouGov, though they disagreed about the exact allocation. They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error.
“So that I could focus on my life as a public servant, I chose to settle the matter and pay what they said was due, which was the right thing to do.”
He added that the matter was resolved and that all his tax affairs were “up to date” when he was appointed Tory party chairman by Sunak in October.
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But the prime minister is facing questions over what he knew about the matter and when, as well as calls to sack Zahawi.
Sunak’s promise of a premiership of “integrity” was already thrown into disarray this week after he was fined by police for not wearing a seatbelt and criticised for the allocation of levelling-up funding.
Downing Street said it had nothing to add to Zahawi’s statement and confirmed that the prime minister had confidence in him as Tory chairman.
Opposition parties have demanded an independent probe as well as the publication of all of Zahawi’s correspondence with HMRC.
Labour party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said Sunak needs to remove Zahawi as party chair, adding: “Zahawi still needs to explain when he became aware of the investigation, and if he was chancellor and in charge of our tax system at the time.
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“He needs to explain why his legal representatives said his affairs were up to date in December last year only for him to settle a million-pound fine this month.”
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Zahawi and his Conservative Cabinet colleagues are arrogantly trying to brush this under the carpet.
“There are facts that still need to be established so there must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this.”
Johnson is accused of making the comment at a leaving party for his director of communications, Lee Cain.
Pictures later emerged of the then PM raining a glass after delivering a speech at the gathering.
One source told the ‘Partygate – The Inside Story’ podcast: “I was working late – some music came on, the mumbling sort of rose, and there were loads of people stood around, but this time I came out because I heard the prime minister speaking and that’s when I heard the quote: ‘This is the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now’ and everyone was laughing about it.”
The source added: “The PM making that comment really sticks out in my mind, that was pretty bad, because the picture showed one side of this going on.
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“But what it didn’t capture is the 20 odd people sat on top of each other on the opposite side – they’re literally shoulder to shoulder, clamped in like a tube carriage.
“And he was there seeing people sat on other people’s laps (in) close proximity, crowded, scrunched up in front of him. He saw that, he saw people with drinks. You saw the picture. It had booze all over that desk. He’s not blind, he’s not stupid. He saw that and didn’t shut it down.
“That was really bad, but that was a normal sight, a regular occurrence, so it wasn’t unusual to see that sort of thing.”
Johnson later told MPs that no lockdown rules were broken in Number 10 – comments which are now the subject of a Commons inquiry.
Another source said of the PM’s comments: “We all watched it live and we were just gobsmacked. We all looked at each other and thought ‘why the hell is he saying this?’ We all know it had happened, he knew it happened – he was there.
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“We were all just shocked that he would even deny it. He was there. We were there. We were all there together. And suddenly he’s denying it.”
The podcast also claimed that staff “shredded” key documents ahead of Sue Gray’s partygate investigation and corroborated their stories before filling out Metropolitan Police questionnaires on the scandal.
Johnson, along with his wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak, was fined for attending a birthday party thrown for him in 10 Downing Street during lockdown – but not over Lee Cain’s leaving party.
A spokesperson for Johnson did not deny he had made the “unsocially distanced party” comment.
They said: “During the pandemic, 10 Downing Street staff worked to coordinate the UK government’s national response.
“The work of Downing Street staff was crucial as they helped marshal the UK’s response to a national emergency.”
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Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “These shocking revelations confirm Boris Johnson’s total disregard for the rules he asked us all to follow. He laughed and partied while the rest of the country suffered.
“Conservative MPs should be ashamed that they backed Johnson for so long and that some are even considering putting him back in Number 10.”
Rishi Sunak’s speaking style has attacted some attention since he became the UK’s third (and final) prime minister of 2022.
While he hasn’t received quite the level of criticism aimed at his predecessor Liz Truss and her famously stilted manner, there have been some comparisons to the cringey Will MacKenzie from The Inbetweeners.
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As the actor behind the character, Simon Bird, joked to The Times: “I’m absolutely baffled why anyone would see any similarities at all between this privately educated, socially awkward, out-of-touch caricature and … ah. Scrap that.”
Sunak’s first speech of 2023, where he made five promises to rejuvenate the nation, was also subject to some ridicule over its delivery.
Here’s a sneak peek…
I am determined to tackle the immediate problems people face.
The Guardian’s John Crace said Sunak spoke “breathlessly and earnestly. And vacuously”, while The Times’ Quentin Letts dubbed it a “wonderfully terrible” talk where Sunak spoke acted as “wide-eyed as a Girl Guide talking about badges”.
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The Telegraph’s Madeleine Grant even said it was like “painting by numbers but with words” or “Count von Count from Sesame Street was moonlight as PM”.
But is there a reason why Sunak has such a particular delivery?
Speaking to HuffPost UK, Ges Ray, who teaches people how to speak in public for a living, suggests that Sunak might have deliberately chosen to have more of a “low profile” compared to his predecessors.
Ray notes that Truss adopted the voice of Margaret Thatcher, with her voice dropping in tone and timbre when she took up her place in No.10.
He adds: “Those who watched Boris Johnson noted his ability to adopt the bumbling orator style as a chosen persona, part of his high profile.”
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By comparison, he says that Sunak uses an “encourage tone” with “relatively simple and straightforward language”, which allows his critics to categorise him as “primary school teacher, reaching above the noise of the classroom with warm encouragement”.
“Which is the audience that matters? His immediate critics, or the population at large, perhaps more open to the contrast with recent PMs?”
– Ges Ray, speech coach
If the PM wants to change his delivery, Ray suggests he needs to work on “voice tones, gravitas, his physical stature” to improve as a speaker.
But he also asks: “Which is the audience that matters? His immediate critics, or the population at large, perhaps more open to the contrast with recent PMs?
“Could it be – and this is simply personal conjecture! – that with the enormous demands of the greatest of Great Offices of State he has eschewed, and indeed distanced himself from the path of his two immediate predecessors, deliberately choosing not to develop a new speaking style?”
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When analysing Truss’s speech during her time in the spotlight, journalist Viv Groskop of the How To Own A Room podcast, explained that there are advantages to being a less conventional speaker.
She told HuffPost UK: “In previous decades we have been used to speakers ― and politicians in particular ― who look and sound more confident than most of us. But often that approach now comes across as stuffy and old-fashioned.
“Now that we are surrounded by TikTok content, TED talks, YouTube and we constantly have people talking at us and trying to get our attention, our perception of what is authentic and worth our time is changing fast.”
But then, we should consider Sunak’s very privileged background, son-in-law to a billionaire and the richest PM ever to take up a seat in No.10.
Some sketch-writers did picked up on Sunak’s slight tone-switch when he started answering journalists’ questions during his speech this week.
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Letts noted that a “sparkier, more commanding, combative Sunak” emerged when challenged by the media on his vision.
“He dropped that dreadful Timmy-the-Hamster voice and sounded more like a corporate high-flyer grasping supply-chain problems,” Letts commented.
Does this mean Sunak is still playing with his speaking style? Only time will tell if we’ll ever experience another gem to rival Truss’s “pork markets” again.
Every year in British politics is now almost always weirder than the last. But surely 2022 – which saw the country rattle through three prime ministers – will be peak stupid?
Below is a quick rundown of some, if not all, of the bonkers moments of the last year. May it rest in peace.
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January
At the start of the year, Boris Johnson was prime minister and under intense pressure over the partygate scandal. On January 12, he admitted had actually attended a No.10 garden event during lockdown. Having previously insisted no rules were broken in Downing Street.
February – Jimmy Savile smear
Johnson spent the first few days of February doubling down on a discredited smear that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile. The then prime minister made the allegation during heated Commons debate over the Sue Gray report into partygate. The false claim led Munira Mirza, his policy chief, to resign.
First, Boris Johnson’s policy chief resigned over the PM’s false claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile. Then the PM’s Director of Communications quit too. 5 mins with details and reaction. Produced by Michael Cox and Jack Kilbride. https://t.co/vPOelb9Tszpic.twitter.com/Fna37x8ZIe
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saw the British government rollout sanctions on people close to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Johnson himself came under pressure to explain his links to prominent Russians including former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and Lubov Chernukhin, the wealthy Tory donor and wife of a former Russian minister. Dominic Raab explained it away as the PM simply being “very social”.
“What first attracted the prime minister to the billionaire Russian oligarchs?” — Labour’s Matt Western queries Boris Johnson’s social connections
On April 12, Johnson was handed a fixed penalty notice by the police for breaking his own Covid lockdown rules. It was the first time a sitting prime minister was found to have broken the law. Despite this, he did not resign.
“I’ve paid the fine, and I once again offer a full apology.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he has received a fixed penalty notice relating to an event on 19 June 2020.
Tory Neil Parish formally resigned from parliament after he admitted watching porn on his phone in the Commons. Twice. The Tiverton and Honiton MP said it had been a “moment of madness” as he initially was innocently looking at pictures of tractors. Easy mixup.
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Neil Parish’s resignation interview comes across as a sketch from Little Britain:
‘Funnily enough it was tractors I was looking at.. I did get into another website that had a very similar name’ pic.twitter.com/msdQcTqkaB
On June 23 by-elections were held in the Tory seats of Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield. The party lost the former to the Lib Dems and the latter to Labour. Ed Davey celebrated his party’s victory with a classically stupid stunt. The double by-election loss did little to settle the nerves of Tory MPs about Johnson’s leadership.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey:
“It’s time to show Boris Johnson the door”
“Conservative excuses for their defeats are beginning to wear thin”
After a wave of resignations finally triggered by the Chris Pincher scandal, Johnson resigned as prime minister on July 7. Yet the previous day he had been determined to cling on. The farce was captured live on TV as he was told a delegation of cabinet ministers was at that very moment in No.10 waiting to tell him to quit. The group included very loyal Nadhim Zahawi, who Johnson had promoted to chancellor 24-hours earlier.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is told ‘a delegation of your cabinet colleagues are waiting for you in Downing Street’ to ask him to resign during questions at the Liaison committee. https://t.co/gxIafafSxw
Perhaps the, highlight, of the contest was Liz Truss announcing plans to pay workers living in cheaper areas of the country less than their counterparts in places like London and the South East.
Tory MPs were livid, with one describing it as “austerity on steroids”. Truss complained there had been a “wilful misrepresentation” of the plan by the media. There had not. Quickly U-turning on the proposal, Truss said it showed she was “honest and decisive”. Perhaps the signs were there all along.
“This could be Liz’s ‘dementia tax’ moment”
Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen says Liz Truss’s u-turn on regional public sector pay plans could damage her leadership campaign, comparing it to Theresa May’s 2017 social care proposal#bbcwatopic.twitter.com/SJmp5tAQnK
Truss hit the ground as prime minister on September 6. Her tenure lasted 49 days, during which time the Queen died, her mini-Budget caused the markets to have a panic attack and Tory poll ratings cratered. In a boost for Global Britain, the race for survival between her and the Daily Star’s lettuce became international news.
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The question was all over social media. Who would survive longer: Britain’s prime minister, Liz Truss, or a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf life of just 10 days? By Thursday, at lunch time, Britain had its answer. It was the lettuce.https://t.co/QF4U4QGEdEpic.twitter.com/Bc2pidItjm
Rishi Sunak succeeded Truss as prime minister on October 26, having lost out to her in the contest to takeover from Johnson. But over the course of a crazy weekend at the start of the month, Johnson flew home from his Caribbean holiday to try and stage a dramatic comeback as PM. Before then dropping out of the race in the face over overwhelming opposition from Tory MPs.
November – Hancock in the jungle
As health secretary Matt Hancock helped lead the country through its biggest crisis since WWII. In November 2022 he decided it was a good idea to join ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. He promptly had the party whip withdrawn and everyone else had to listen to constant jokes about him eating testicles.
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December – normal service resumed?
The final month of 2022 in Westminster was somewhat stable when it came to nonsense, as the government grappled with strikes, inflation and the war in Ukraine. This could signal 2023 will be more serious if not calmer. But let’s not count on it.
Announcing his decision on Twitter, Sharma said: “Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of renewable power and will help to bolster the UK’s energy security.
“I said in Parliament in July, that where communities are positively welcoming of onshore in return for reduced bills, onshore should be kept on the table So I will support Simon Clarke’s Levelling Up Bill amendment to lift the ban on onshore & let local communities decide.”
Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of renewable power and will help to bolster the UK’s energy security
There are already 14 GW of onshore installed across the country, including at the UK’s largest onshore wind farm in Whitelee, just outside Glasgow
I said in Parliament in July, that where communities are positively welcoming of onshore in return for reduced bills, onshore should be kept on the table
So I will support @SimonClarkeMP’s Levelling Up Bill amendment to lift the ban on onshore & let local communities decide
The move is a further blow for Rishi Sunak, who has already been forced to back down over a separate amendment to the levelling up and regeneration bill following another Tory rebellion.
More than 50 Conservative MPs have put their names to an amendment which would mean councils would no longer have to follow Whitehall housebuilding targets.
A vote on the amendment was due to take place on Monday, but it was pulled by the government to avoid an embarrassing rebellion.
Labour accused Sunak of “running scared of your own backbenchers”.
Welcoming Sharma’s support, Simon Clarke said: “As a former secretary of state for business and Cop president, Alok Sharma has huge authority on why we should end the ban on onshore wind.
The former prime ministers have put their names to an amendment in the name of former cabinet minister Simon Clarke calling for an end to the ban on new onshore wind farm developments.
It is the pair’s first major political interventions since they both left Downing Street over the summer.
Clarke, who was sacked as levelling up secretary by Sunak when he became PM last month, said in a tweet that he was “delighted” to have Truss and Johnson’s support.
He said allowing new onshore wind farms was “a pro growth, pro green policy at a time when we need both”.
Sunak has already been forced to back down over a separate amendment to the levelling up and regeneration bill following another Tory rebellion.
More than 50 Conservative MPs have put their names to an amendment which would mean councils would no longer have to follow Whitehall housebuilding targets.
A vote on the amendment was due to take place on Monday, but it was pulled by the government to avoid an embarrassing rebellion.
Labour accused Sunak of “running scared of your own backbenchers”.
A Labour MP perfectly summed up the chaos caused by the Tories this year as she grilled Jeremy Hunt.
The chancellor was left squirming as Angela Eagle ran through the astonishing political events of the last 12 months.
Hunt was appearing in front of the Treasury select committee to face questions on last week’s autumn statement, which came just weeks after his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget.
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Hunt unveiled £55 billion of tax rises and spending cuts as he tried to undo the damage caused in part by Kwarteng’s unfunded spending spree, which sent the value of the pound plummeting and interest rates soaring.
Kwarteng was only in the job for six weeks, having been appointed by Liz Truss after she succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister in September.
Eagle told Hunt: “Chancellor, this year alone your party has given us three prime ministers, four chancellors, four different versions of the Conservative government and six fiscal events.
“One hundred and forty-seven members of the government, including 32 cabinet ministers, have resigned or been sacked.
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“What effect do you think this chaos has had on our economic prospects and our international reputation.”
Angela Eagle: “This year your party has given us 3 PMs, 4 Chancellors, 4 different versions of the Tory govt & 6 fiscal events. 142 members of the govt resigned,including 32 Cabinet ministers.. what effect has this chaos had on our economic prospects & international reputation?” pic.twitter.com/b4iQOs1S3c
In response, the chancellor insisted the UK’s economic woes had been “primarily” caused by the war in Ukraine and the global rise in energy prices.
He said: “I wish we hadn’t had that level of instability, but I produced an autumn statement that is designed to restore economic stability and consistency of economic policymaking and I hope we can turn the page on all that instability.”
“This thing was a huge shock,” Johnson alleged on Wednesday. “We could see the Russian battalion tactical groups amassing, but different countries had very different perspectives.”
He began: “The German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly, and for Ukraine to fold.”
Germany had a substantial dependency on Russia’s fuel exports prior to the war, due to the Nord Stream pipelines which transmitted natural gas from Russia int Europe. However, it has been trying to wean itself off ever since the war started.
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Johnson then claimed there were “all sorts of sound economic reasons” behind that way of thinking, but added: “I couldn’t support that, I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it.
“But I can understand why they thought and felt as they did.”
An aide of Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz has since rebuffed these claims, claiming that Johnson has “his own relationship with the truth”, and said the idea Germany wanted a quick end to the war was “utter nonsense”.
Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit also told reporters in Berlin: “I think I can say that first-hand, because I took part in talks with the then British prime minister in Munich only a few days before the start of the war. Namely that he always has a very personal approach toward the truth.”
Germany’s economic cooperation secretary Jochen Flasbarth also tweeted that Johnson’s claims were “crazy”.
How crazy: The one politician with the highest lack of solidarity with Europe @BorisJohnson accusing Germany for leaving Ukraine alone. We were always on the side of Ukraine and supporting their economic and societal development by far higher then Johnsons UK ever did. https://t.co/9vUeDS18OI
The former prime minister also targeted France in his interview, claiming the UK’s neighbour was “in denial” over the possibility of a war on the fringes of Europe.
He claimed: “Be in no doubt that the French were in denial right up until the last moment.”
French president Emmanuel Macron led Europe’s attempts to prevent Vladimir Putin’s aggression tipping into war earlier this year, and even went to Kremlin just weeks shortly before Russia ordered the attack.
Then Johnson went after Italy. He told CNN that the Italian government, then led by Mario Draghi, was “at one stage simply saying that they would be unable to support the position we were taking” due to their “massive” reliance on Russian hydrocarbons.
However, Johnson said that once the actual invasion began, a sense of unity emerged.
“What happened was everybody – Germans, French, Italians, everybody, Joe Biden – saw that there was simply no option.
“Because you couldn’t negotiate with this guy (Putin). That’s the key point.”
He added in unusual praise for the bloc that the EU “has done brilliantly” opposing Putin.
“After all my anxieties…I pay tribute to the way the EU has acted. They have been united. The sanctions were tough.”
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Interestingly, the prominent Eurosceptic who led the Vote Leave campaign said that if Ukraine wants to join the EU “they should go for it and I think it would be a good thing for Ukraine”.
Ukraine has been vocal in its admiration for Johnson – and even tweeted out a suggestion that he return to Downing Street again after Liz Truss’s resignation, but it was quickly deleted.
New prime minister Rishi Sunak made his first official visit to the country last week, and pledged £50 million in defence aid.
Despite the ongoing support from Western allies for Ukraine, Russia has continued its relentless attacks on the nation, leaving entire regions without power as the winter looms.
Dorries said there was a “general air in the room” at a party thrown by Johnson to thank his supporters of “people saying he will be back”.
She said Johnson was using his time out of No.10 to “recoup” money spent while in office.
“I used to say that to be a prime minister you need to be rich because it costs you a lot of money,” Dorries said.
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“It is part of the role to invite people to Chequers, but you have to pay for every cup of tea served out of your own pocket.”
In what will be seen as a pop at Sunak, the close ally of Johnson added: “So unless you are a multimillionaire, it is a problem.”
As prime minister, Johnson earned £161,401 per year.
During that time he accepted a £15,000 gift of a Caribbean holiday from a Conservative donor who co-founded Carphone Warehouse.
The Downing Street flat was also refurbished at a cost of £200,000, paid for by Tory donor Lord Brownlow.
Since standing down, he has accepted £50,000 in from the family of Tory donor Lord Bamford.
In early October he earned £135,000 for giving a speech in the United States to insurance brokers.
In a recent interview with Sky News, Johnson – who remains an MP – would not be drawn on his future plans, saying only he was “happy doing what I’m doing”.
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Earlier this week he delivered a speech at the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt.
His decision to attend the gathering was widely seen as forcing Sunak to U-turn and also fly to the meeting.
