Tory leadership: Nadine Dorries steps down and returns to backbenches – as it happened

Dorries to step down ahead of cabinet reshuffle

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries is set to step down and return to the backbenches as Liz Truss becomes prime minister on Tuesday.

Truss, the new leader of the Conservative party, is understood to have offered Dorries the opportunity to remain in the role, in a story first reported by Mail Plus.

But Dorries, an ardent supporter of Boris Johnson during his controversial stint at No 10, is expected to receive a peerage from the outgoing prime minister when he leaves office.

Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Mail Plus reports:

Liz Truss had offered her the opportunity to stay in her post if she wanted to but Mrs Dorries, who has been a vocal supporter during her leadership campaign, has decided to return to the back benches.

A friend last night said: ‘Nadine has agonised over this as she is 100 per cent supportive of Liz. But she has decided now is the right time to leave Cabinet.’

It is expected she will be given a peerage as Boris Johnson leaves office, which will trigger a by-election in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency she has held since 2005.

Updated at 17.53 EDT

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Summary

Here is a round-up of today’s headlines:

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. Thanks for following along on a busy day in Westminster. Goodbye for now.

Tomorrow’s front pages

Here is a look at some of Tuesday’s front pages:

Dorries to step down ahead of cabinet reshuffle

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries is set to step down and return to the backbenches as Liz Truss becomes prime minister on Tuesday.

Truss, the new leader of the Conservative party, is understood to have offered Dorries the opportunity to remain in the role, in a story first reported by Mail Plus.

But Dorries, an ardent supporter of Boris Johnson during his controversial stint at No 10, is expected to receive a peerage from the outgoing prime minister when he leaves office.

Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Mail Plus reports:

Liz Truss had offered her the opportunity to stay in her post if she wanted to but Mrs Dorries, who has been a vocal supporter during her leadership campaign, has decided to return to the back benches.

A friend last night said: ‘Nadine has agonised over this as she is 100 per cent supportive of Liz. But she has decided now is the right time to leave Cabinet.’

It is expected she will be given a peerage as Boris Johnson leaves office, which will trigger a by-election in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency she has held since 2005.

Updated at 17.53 EDT

Truss considering plans to freeze energy bills until next election – report

Liz Truss is weighing up plans to freeze energy bills until the next general election in 2024, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The foreign secretary, who will become prime minister tomorrow, could announce energy bills support for households as soon as Thursday, it has been reported.

She will also give a speech on the steps of No 10 Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon, weather allowing, when she will set out her vision for her premiership.

The Telegraph reports:

The Telegraph understands that, among the moves to tackle the cost of living crisis set to be unveiled this week, Ms Truss could freeze energy bills for all households until 2024.

The “huge” policy intervention would last longer and cost tens of billions of pounds more than the Labour Party’s proposal to cap prices at their current levels until early 2023.

Ms Truss is also expected to announce a huge expansion of North Sea gas extraction. Future revenues could potentially help to fund the cost of freezing bills.

Truss to appoint Cabinet of loyalists as she becomes UK’s next PM

Liz Truss will become Britain’s next prime minister on Tuesday and will immediately appoint a Cabinet of loyalist MPs as her government begins a race against time to set out plans to deal with the cost of living emergency.

She will become Britain’s fourth Tory prime minister in six years after beating Rishi Sunak in the bitterly fought Conservative leadership contest launched after Tory MPs ousted Boris Johnson.

The prime minister-elect is expected to announce plans for an energy price freeze on Thursday as she battles to navigate an overwhelming in-tray during the worst economic crisis in a generation.

She faces an uphill struggle to win over Tory MPs as she inherits a deeply divided party lagging behind in the polls with some mutinous backbenchers already said to be plotting her demise.

Truss won 81,326 votes (57.4%) of Tory members to the former chancellor’s 60,399 (42.6%), a narrower victory than many had expected.

The co-director of Liz Truss’s campaign has been lobbying the UK government on behalf of Libya’s controversial parliament and a company that won the biggest PPE deal of the pandemic through the VIP fast-track lane.

Mark Fullbrook, an ally of Boris Johnson’s former strategist Lynton Crosby, is expected to enter Downing Street as Truss’s chief of staff after working on her campaign this summer.

The political consultant set up his own company, Fullbrook Strategies, this spring and has since been lobbying the UK government. His clients included Libya’s house of representatives, which has twice attempted to overthrow the UN-established government of national unity in Tripoli, and Sante Global, formerly Unispace Health, which was awarded a £680m PPE contract in 2020.

The parliament, which was last elected in 2014, is seen by some as a block on democratic elections in Libya, and is allied to the rival government in the east of the country, which is seeking recognition from the UK and others.

When Libya’s elections were postponed last year, the UK’s diplomatic mission in Libya published a message on its Twitter account saying it continued to recognise the interim government of national unity “as the authority tasked with leading Libya to elections and does not endorse the establishment of parallel governments or institutions”.

For the first time in Britain’s history, there will not be a white man in one of the four great offices of state.

Prime minister-in-waiting Liz Truss, who beat Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest, is expected to appoint James Cleverly as foreign secretary, Suella Braverman as home secretary and Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor.

Kwarteng, who is set to become the UK’s first Black chancellor, will take the reins of a position where three of his Tory predecessors were also from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

The expected appointments were welcomed by some, including Boris Johnson’s former race adviser, Samuel Kasumu, who resigned last year after a controversial a report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which critics said dismissed institutional racism.

“The new cabinet is another reminder that people from all backgrounds can go far within the Tory party,” Kasumu said. “The challenge for us is to have this diversity reflected among who votes for us. It will be key to the party’s future success.”

Education secretary James Cleverly has dismissed suggestions Liz Truss will take the Conservatives to the right.

Cleverly, who is tipped to be the next foreign secretary, told Channel 4 News:

I have heard that accusation at the formation of every government that had a Conservative at the head.

Liz is going to be focused on growing economy, she is going to make sure we support people that need help, both domestically and internationally, she is going to work with countries around the world that believe in freedom and openness.

That strikes me as a political agenda that everyone should be able to rally around.

Cleverly said he believed the government would continue its support for Ukraine, despite the impact of the war on energy prices.

“If we signal to the world that we are willing to allow the pressure to defeat democracy, then all of the concerns we are currently experiencing will pale into insignificance,” he said.

“We have absolutely got to stand by our commitment to Ukraine. I have no doubt we will.”

French president Emmanuel Macron has congratulated Liz Truss on winning the battle to become the next UK prime minister, stating that “the British nation is our ally”.

Truss told Tory members at a leadership hustings in Norwich in August that she was undecided as to whether the French leader was “friend or foe”.

“Congratulations to Liz Truss on her election,” Macron tweeted.

“The British people are our friends, the British nation is our ally. Let us continue working together to defend our shared interests.”

Aubrey Allegretti

The Conservative MP Christopher Chope has been tipped to join the committee investigating claims Boris Johnson misled parliament about his knowledge of Covid law-breaking parties, sources have told the Guardian.

Chope would replace Laura Farris, who announced over the summer that she was stepping down from the body that scrutinises complaints about MPs’ behaviour.

The nomination would need to be passed by the Commons in order for him to be appointed to the privileges committee.

Normally, the vote is done as a “nod or nothing” – meaning that if there were one dissenting voice, it would fall.

Chope’s appointment is likely to prove controversial given his history of blocking laws, including attempts to outlaw “upskirting”.

A source said he was well-versed in parliamentary procedure. Chope also sat for two years on the privileges committee from October 2017 until November 2019.

The government did not respond to a request for comment.

Liz Truss’s imminent arrival in Downing Street as British prime minister has been greeted with scorn and scarcely veiled condescension from the Kremlin, but an outpouring of praise in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, expressed concerns that relations might deteriorate in comments to reporters shortly before Truss was announced as the winner of the Tory leadership race.

“I wouldn’t like to say that things can change for the worse, because it’s hard to imagine anything worse,” Peskov said when asked if Moscow expected any shift in relations with Britain. “But unfortunately, this cannot be ruled out.”

The Kremlin has openly mocked and belittled Truss since she went to Moscow in February for talks with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. In the meeting, a fortnight before the Russian invasion, Truss challenged Lavrov on the buildup of 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, which Moscow denied was preparation for an attack. Lavrov complained that her interventions were “just slogans shouted from the tribunes”.

Aubrey Allegretti

Rishi Sunak has vowed to carry on as an MP despite losing out in the Conservative leadership race, with supporters suggesting his better than expected performance means he could run again if Liz Truss loses the next general election.

The Guardian understands he told party donors at an event the day before voting closed last week that he would remain in frontline politics regardless of the result.

Allies close to the former chancellor confirmed he planned to fulfil that pledge and not quit parliament, which would have triggered an early and potentially embarrassing byelection for Truss in his Yorkshire constituency of Richmond.

Sunak received 43% of the vote from Tory members and sources on his campaign claimed they had won over a high proportion of members who remained undecided until the final weeks of the contest.

The former chancellor is will not be offered a cabinet job after he declined to say last month whether he would vote for an emergency Truss budget.

Tory sources also said he would likely have rejected the offer of running a “poisoned chalice” department, such as the Department of Health and Social Care, for which the Sun previously reported that he was being lined up.

Cabinet minister Nigel Adams resigns following Truss victory

Nigel Adams, who has served as minister of state without portfolio at the Cabinet Office since 2021, is the latest Tory to resign from the government following Liz Truss’s election as party leader.

In a resignation letter to the outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson, Adams said “there has never been a dull moment” and that he is “honoured” to have Johnson as a friend.

The Yorkshire Post’s Westminster correspondent Mason Boycott-Owen has tweeted the full letter.