The appointment of Tory MP Nadine Dorries as the new secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport has prompted much criticism and backlash after several of her old tweets and quotes resurfaced.
The 64-year-old member of parliament for Mid Bedfordshire replaces Oliver Dowden in the role, who was promoted to chairman of the Conservative Party as part of Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday.
Dorries, who wrote several novels, was a strong supporter of Brexit. She was also previously the minister for mental healthcare. However, this new role has revealed many quotes and tweets that MPs have shared in recent years.
One tweet that was widely shared came from December 2017 where she accused “left-wing snowflakes” of “killing comedy, tearing down historic statues, removing books from universities, dumbing down panto, removing Christ from Christmas and suppressing free speech.”
Also from December 2017, Dorries strangely boasted about her interns using her logins to access her computer, which is slightly concerning now that her new job now involves cyber security.
She threatened David Cameron, then the prime minister, in May 2013 by threatening to lose 50 seats if she continued pushing for sex-same marital.
She also claimed in 2012 that she had never met gay couples who wanted to marry.
Also from 2013, she complained that she had been called “racist” after saying that former Labour MP Chuka Umunna looked like ex-boxer Chris Eubank. Labour’s David Lammy called her appointment “disappointing” in light of this tweet.
On similar lines, Dorries was criticised in February 2019 after she said that journalist Ask Sakar and former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen “looked the same” and that she had gotten confused because of their “accents“.
In August 2018, she claimed that Boris Johnson “didn’t go far enough” in his controversial article where he compared Muslim women who wear Burkas to “post boxes” and “bank robbers.”
In addition, Dorries has also shared several tweets that promoted Islamophobia including one from the now-suspended account of far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson.
She had also singled out radio host James O’Brien, who she called a ‘public school posh boy f**k wit’ after he had blocked Dorries on Twitter.
Aside from the resurfaced quotes, Dorries’ appointment has been widely lambasted on Twitter by politicians and members of the media alike.
indy100 has contacted Dorries for comment.