Walk on by…

None of us are going to miss Nadine Dorries who formally resigned as an MP  this week almost 12 weeks after she said she was stepping down with "immediate effect". 
Her resignation letter – a rant against her leader, Rishi Sunak, whom she clearly despises –  no doubt sets the scene for the launch of her forthcoming book on the downfall of her idol, Boris Johnson. 
In politics Johnson liked to be surrounded by people lesser than himself. Rishi Sunak and Dominic Cummings were notable exceptions. Nadine Dorries was not. 
Few, apart from herself, can recall her achievements as an MP and later a Cabinet minister in the Johnson government. If she’s remembered for anything at all it will be for the string of novels she’s written over the years or the time she lost the Tory whip for taking part in the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! In 2012.
Many will be glad to see the back of her – and not just in the House of Commons. Adam Zerny, the Independent leader of Central Bedfordshire Council, says his constituents won’t be shedding any tears over her departure from the political scene.
  "There's a great degree of relief amongst the many people who are constituents that finally this may be over and we may soon find that we have an MP that actually cares about the local community.” Zelny said. “She's rarely ever been seen in the area. And I think we've had very much the impression that what she cares about is her own life and her life at Westminster rather than Mid Beds”.
With exquisite timing Ms Dorries has ensured that the by-election in her Mid-Bedfordshire constituency will fall soon after the publication of her book The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson and the Tories’ annual conference in October.
And Sunak may rue the day he denied her a peerage if her safe Tory seat falls to Labour or the Liberal Democrats – and both have high hopes given the slump in Tory fortunes. 
The fact that the Tories are openly fighting amongst themselves shows how deep the divisions are between the Remainers and Brexiteers. Back in the halcyon days of the 1960s and 70s Tories of all hues closed ranks to stop Labour returning to high office. These days they clearly think they’ve nothing to fear from Sir Keir Starmer and his Blairite chums. 
The latest opinion poll puts Labour 25 points ahead of the Conservatives and suggest that Labour has the support of 50 per cent of the electorate and at the moment Labour seems to heading for a landslide at the next general election.
Ms Dorries says in her resignation letter that “it is a fact that there is no affection for Keir Starmer out on the doorstep. He does not have the winning X factor qualities of a Thatcher, a Blair, or a Boris Johnson, and sadly, prime minister, neither do you. Your actions have left some 200 or more of my MP colleagues to face an electoral tsunami and the loss of their livelihoods, because in your impatience to become prime minister you put your personal ambition above the stability of the country and our economy,”.
She may not be right about Sunak but she’s spot on about Starmer.