Nadine Dorries: Boris is the man to lead the Tories

The Mid Bedfordshire MP is unequivocally backing the former Mayor of London on the basis that “he is a winner”, while his main opponent’s past comments may come back to haunt her.

And Nadine has predicted a bright future for the Conservatives if her fellow MPs agree.

Ms Dorries told the Times & Citizen: “I want a winner.

“I think the leadership race will be between Boris and Theresa May, and I have a very high opinion of Theresa. But people keep telling me she is an ‘Angela Merkel-type’, and the British public aren’t like the Germans - we want someone with charm, charisma, and a proven track record.

“And I don’t think that Theresa has ever lived down her quote that the Conservatives are the ‘nasty party’.”

The Conservative leadership campaign has been sparked by the referendum vote to leave the EU, after which David Cameron announced he would step down both as Prime Minister and as party leader later this year.

While Boris Johnson may be the most-known MP in Britain, with his regular appearances on television and in magazines and newspapers, Ms Dorries is not far behind. Most famously she appeared on the show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2012, and has also become a successful author.

But while Ms Dorries predicts that Boris would be a boon for the Tories in a general election, she did not believe that the UK will go to the polls again until 2020.

She said: “Boris has a proven track record. He won twice as Mayor of London and did great things there. And he’ll be a witty winner in the future - I want to go to 2020 knowing that we’ll not only keep our marginal seats but that we’ll pick up new seats too.

“But I don’t think that there will be another general election if he does win. There’s no appetite for it among the British people, because referendums do cause divisions.”