Nadine Dorries claimed £75 of expenses for printer ink days before quitting

27 January 2024 , 21:38

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It's not known if the printer was used for her resignation letter (Image: Getty Images)

Nadine Dorries spent £75 of taxpayers’ cash on a print cartridge just days before resigning as an MP.

The former minister, who has entertained Westminster with lurid tales of plots and schemes by shadowy figures to overthrow her old boss, Boris Johnson, announced she would quit as an MP “with immediate effect” on June 9 last year (2023).

But it took until 23 August for her to actually put in her letter and vacate her Mid-Beds seat. On 7 August - long after she announced she was planning to resign - Ms Dorries submitted an expenses claim for £75.90 for a printer cartridge.

It’s not clear if she used the cartridge to print her resignation letter, which was given exclusively to the Mail on Sunday. Ms Dorries properly submitted the receipts, and the claim was within the rules.

But she was accused of being “offensive” to voters when she left Parliament, for failing to declare any cash she pocketed from her second job as a TV presenter. The ex-Tory MP didn’t declare a single penny in earnings from nearly a year of presenting a high profile TV show - while largely absent from her day job as an MP.

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She kicked off her broadcasting career in October 2023, filling in for Piers Morgan while he was on holiday from his show on Talk TV. She was later handed her own Friday night show on the channel.

But despite several MPs properly declaring thousands of pounds worth of fees after appearing as guests on the channel to Commons authorities - she never registered any earnings from the potentially lucrative job. MPs are required to publicly declare most outside earnings - including fees from TV appearances.

Fellow Tory Jake Berry declared a fee of £600 for filling in for Jeremy Kyle on one occasion on the same channel - and various fees between £120 and £365 for appearing as a guest on several programmes. The Mirror revealed last week that Ms Dorries Friday night show had been axed after less than a year on the air.

Mikey Smith