Why Rishi Sunak can expect Nadine Dorries to grab by-election headlines for a few more weeks
She may finally have honoured her promise to stand down, but the Mid Bedfordshire MP may continue to command headlines for some time, writes ITV News Anglia political correspondent Emma Hutchinson.
More than two months after announcing she was quitting as Mid Bedfordshire MP “with immediate effect”, Nadine Dorries has finally officially handed in her resignation.
On Tuesday morning she was appointed by the chancellor to the post of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern - an archaic mechanism by which MPs are able to quit the house.
So the people of Mid Bedfordshire no longer have an MP and there is a vacancy in the House of Commons.
Campaigning is already well under way in the constituency - Tuesday will be Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey’s fourth visit to Mid Bedfordshire, but now the campaign can start officially.
What happens now?
The first stage in that process is the “moving of the writ” in Parliament.
That cannot take place until Parliament returns next week from the summer recess.
As the seat was Conservative at the last election, it is up to the Conservatives to decide when to move the writ.
They could wait a little while but the chances are they will want to get this by-election over and done with rather than drag out the process.
There has also been criticism from many that Mid Bedfordshire has not been served well by Nadine Dorries so it might not look good to leave the constituency any longer than necessary without a MP.
When could the Mid Bedfordshire by-election be held?
If the writ is moved next week in parliament, then the earliest possible date for the by-election would be Thursday, 5 October.
That is the week of the Conservative party conference, and the day after Rishi Sunak's first big speech to conference as PM.
With a Conservative majority of more than 24,000 at the last election, this should be a safe Conservative seat but opinion polls suggest there is perhaps no such thing right now.
The Lib Dems are optimistic, saying it is exactly the kind of seat they have won recently in other by-elections. They came third last time but hope to leapfrog Labour to win.
Labour, however, say they are also in it to win it.
The Conservatives' best hope might be that both Labour and Lib Dems do well, allowing their candidate to come through the middle.
It will be an interesting contest, one which Rishi Sunak would have hoped to get out of the way back in July ahead of the recess.
Now he faces the possibility of losing a Conservative seat just as he would have hoped to get on the front foot with his conference speech.
But with this by-election and Nadine Dorries’ book on the downfall of Boris Johnson due out at the end of September, the PM might expect the former Mid Beds MP to keep grabbing the headlines for a while yet.
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