2023 Mid Bedfordshire by-election

Mid Bedfordshire is a large rural constituency in Bedfordshire. Towns in the seat include Ampthill, Flitwick and Shefford. Smaller villages in the seat include Meppershall and Woburn. Residents are wealthier than the UK average and health is around the UK average.[2] The previous by-election in the constituency had been in 1960.[3]

The constituency had been held by the Conservatives since 1931, with Nadine Dorries as its MP since 2005.[4] At the 2019 general election, Dorries won with a majority of 24,664.[5]

Dorries has been a strong supporter of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. She had previously announced her decision to stand down at the next general election, having criticised her colleagues for getting rid of Johnson.[6] There had been speculation for months that she, Nigel Adams and Alok Sharma were to receive peerages in Johnson's resignation honours list.[7]

The Sunday Times reported that, on 2 June 2023, Johnson met the current Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and agreed to campaign for him if Sunak approved his honours list.[8] A source close to Sunak said that no deal had been agreed, but that Sunak had said he would not interfere in the process. The list of proposed peerages went to the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC), who rejected several names, including Dorries, Adams and Sharma, as they were serving MPs who were not planning to stand down imminently. This led to a row about whether arrangements could be made for Dorries and the others.[9] Johnson wanted Sunak to overrule HOLAC or to promise to give Adams, Dorries and Sharma peerages later, but Sunak refused.[10] Sunak said on 12 June that Johnson asked him to overrule HOLAC or make promises to people of peerages at a later stage, but that he "was not prepared to do that".[11] Tim Shipman in The Sunday Times reported that Johnson messaged Dorries after this meeting, telling her she was on the list.[10]

On the morning of 9 June, Dorries denied she would be resigning. When she subsequently announced that she would be resigning "with immediate effect" later in the day, she said "something significant" had happened to change her mind, without giving further detail. However, this came shortly after reports that she had been dropped from the list so as to avoid a by-election.[6] Later on 9 June, Johnson's honours list was published without Dorries.[12]

According to The Times, Johnson and his nominees believed mistakenly that they could be re-vetted by HOLAC every six months without needing to be re-nominated, as long as they said they would be standing down at the next general election. Dorries first discovered on the evening of 8 June that she was not on the honours list. On 9 June, she contacted a senior minister and said that Johnson had assured her that she could be re-vetted and nominated at a later date. The minister said that she would have needed to have resigned as an MP already or notified HOLAC of her intention to do so. Dorries asked if she could resign immediately and be put back on the list; her request was refused. She asked if Sunak would submit her for a peerage at the next election, and was told Sunak would not be making any promises. Dorries subsequently announced her resignation.[13]

Later the same day, Johnson also announced his intention to resign as an MP over the way the Commons Privileges Committee had investigated his statements to Parliament related to Partygate, eventually triggering another by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.[14]

Dorries later criticised Sunak and his adviser James Forsyth as "posh boys", who "duplicitously and cruelly" blocked her from receiving a peerage. Johnson also continued to criticise Sunak.[15]

Having announced her intention to resign, Dorries delayed formally resigning as an MP, to the frustration of the Conservative Party.[16] The Financial Times reported that she was doing so to cause trouble for Sunak.[17]

On the evening of 14 June, Dorries tweeted to say that it was "absolutely" her intention to resign, but that she was delaying doing so until she had received information requested about why she was not awarded a peerage.[18] She missed the deadline to resign in order for a by-election to occur before Parliament's summer recess.[19]

In summer 2023, both Flitwick and Shefford Town Councils wrote open letters to Dorries, urging her to immediately vacate the seat, citing her lack of representation for her constituents and criticising her absence.[20][21] Labour MP Chris Bryant proposed the use of a 19th century Parliamentary rule to table a motion requiring Dorries to attend Parliament or be suspended, which would lead to a recall petition.[22]

On 26 August 2023, Dorries formally announced her resignation; her resignation letter to the Prime Minister was also published in the Daily Mail. The letter was highly critical of Sunak, accusing him of abandoning "the fundamental principles of Conservatism", and also claiming the police had visited her home due to threats made to her person.[23][24] The formal process of resignation, by appointment to the position of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, was completed on 29 August 2023.[23]

Parliament was in recess when Dorries formally resigned; the motion for the writ of election was made when it reconvened on 4 September 2023, with the warrant for the writ issued on 12 September.[25][26]