Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British author and a former politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022.

As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education.

Dorries had not spoken in the House of Commons since leaving the government in July 2022, or worked on any bill or select committees, and was criticised by both Tory and opposition MPs for allegedly abandoning her constituents.

[11] Dorries won the Conservative candidacy for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire in 2005 on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed.

Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.

[36] On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character.

[13][41][42] McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue",[43] and demanded an apology[13] intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".

It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.

[51] On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the general election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament.

"[64] The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".

[77] George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip,[78][79] while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP,[80][81][82] which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections.

[81][83] Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.

[89] Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

[89] Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.

From a semi-private discussion that BuzzFeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries.

"[93] In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake.

[99] In November 2020, Dorries attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[102] On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman.

[105] In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content.

[113] In July 2022, Dorries personally granted Grade II listed status to a plaque of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford which she stated was of "special historic interest".

[114] This decision was controversial as Rhodes had been labelled the "architect of apartheid"[115] because he passed laws in the Cape Colony that expropriated land from black Africans and effectively banned them from political participation.

[116] On 9 February 2023, Dorries announced that she would not seek re-election at the next general election, blaming "infighting and stupidity" that led to the July 2022 government crisis and Johnson's resignation.

[121] Dorries stated that she had submitted a subject access request to the House of Lords Appointments Commission and was waiting to resign until she had received all unredacted "WhatsApps, text messages, all emails and minutes of meetings" related to why she was denied a peerage.

[131] In a letter to Sunak published on 26 August, Dorries explicitly signified her resignation as an MP while criticising his administration, accusing him of abandoning the "fundamental principles of Conservatism" and "opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy against one of his own MPs".

[132][133][134] In response to her resignation letter, Conservative MP Sir Robert Neill stated that Dorries had "become an embarrassment" and that her claims "were obviously motivated by personal bitterness and bile".

[135] Tobias Ellwood referred to the manner of her departure as a "selfish charade" and an "undignified chapter ... an episode of colleagues throwing their teddies in the corner, in this case for simply not getting a peerage".

[182] On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no".

[204] She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".

"[207] In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government U-turn on fuel duty.

[208] In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change.