Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister at the time, allegedly barred Nadine Dorries from speaking to a BBC Breakfast show.
On live television, the former Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport made the revelation. She disclosed the circumstances of the hefty suspension when speaking with Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty.
The 66-year-old’s previous appearance was via Zoom, and she was concerned that the hosts had overheard her private conversation with Johnson via the microphone that had been put up before of the interview.
‘I prefer this one to the Zoom call last time,’ she began.
‘The thing I’ve never told you is, that the first question you asked me was “Have you spoken to the Prime Minister?”
‘I’d literally 30 seconds before put the phone down on him and I thought you’d heard me – that’s what freaked me out.’
‘You thought we’d overheard your conversation?’ Charlie asked.
‘Yes,’ confirmed Ms Dorries.
‘So when you said: “Have you spoken to the prime minister?” I was like “Woah. Has he just overheard me? I just put the phone down with the mics on.” So that’s what happened,’ she admitted.
Charlie, 61, was naturally inquisitive about the content of their discussion and asked: ‘You know what I’m gonna have to ask now don’t you? What was the nature of that conversation that day which you did not want us to talk about?’
‘He was saying to me: “I hear you’re about to do breakfast TV. Do not say anything to Charlie Stayt”. That’s what he said,’ she shared with a laugh.
Before moving on to the following part, the presenter took the anecdote well and grinned.
Ms Dorries formally left the government after 18 years in August and is currently pushing her own book, The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, on BBC Breakfast.
‘The Plot is the seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative Party became a pariah,’ the blurb promises.
‘Told with unparalleled access, from multiple inside sources talking with astonishing candour, it reveals the shocking truth about powerful forces operating behind the scenes in the heart of Westminster and those who became the architects of a Prime Minister’s downfall.’
In her scathing resignation letter, she wrote: ‘What exactly has been done or have you [Rishi Sunak] achieved? You hold the office of prime minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs.
‘You have no mandate from the people, and the government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?’
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One.
