The Four Streets: Volume 1

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Boris Johnson campaigning for the Tory leadership in 2019, with Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Already we have heard about the scheming “Dr No”, a Government insider so brutish, that he once butchered a rabbit dear to a former partner in revenge. Now comes the story of “The Movement”, a faction of Boris critics said to be moving against him from inside the walls of Whitehall while he was prime minister. The portrait of her doing the rounds is one of a self-confessed “quite UKIP-y” fountain of bad takes. Such is her reputation for lamenting how “leftwing snowflakes” are dumbing down panto, and her former opposition to gay marriage, that one Tory MP reacted to the news of her appointment by telling the FT: “Nadine bleeding Dorries. Was whoever decided that on LSD at the time?”

Nads, honest soul that she is, confesses that she had doubts about committing to print what she has found out because it meant risking all she held dear. “I had to face what would be the hardest decision of my life: do I carry on (in cabinet) or do I step down to write this book?” she confides. The sound of violins to be inserted here. “I would have to give up everything I loved, the job, possibly even my role as an MP.” What dedication to the truth she has displayed by going ahead with The Plot even though it meant vacating the cabinet seat that she so adorned with her shimmering intellect and subtle grace, as well as setting aside her legendary dedication to the constituents of Mid Bedfordshire. I don’t know about you, but I’m misting over at her selfless spirit. It is unfortunate that so many of Nads’s sources are anonymous, but that is an inevitable feature of dealing with a conspiracy as sinister as this one The Dark Lord is Dominic Cummings and the Wolf is someone called Dougie Smith. If you have never heard of him, that proves how secretive it all is. Everyone was scared of Dr No, though his name was never mentioned – a bit like Voldemort, though Nadine Dorries reserves that comparison for Michael Gove.The publisher said a “small delay is necessary to allow for the huge volume of material the author has consulted, the number of high-level sources spoken to and the required legal process needed to share her story”. Those victims of abuse and paedophilia at the hands of the Catholic Church deserve redress and proper recognition but this novel insults their suffering rather than presenting their case in a sympathetic manner.

Dorries, who was elected as an MP in May 2005, added: “What exactly has been done or have you [Sunak] achieved? You hold the office of prime minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. So let us be clear that Nads has scrupulously substantiated her claims by interviewing key “sources”. It is unfortunate that so many of them are anonymous, but that is an inevitable feature of dealing with a conspiracy as sinister as this one. One of these sources she codenames “Moneypenny”. Another is disguised as “M”. You may sense a theme here. Two others she calls “Bambi and Thumper”. Connoisseurs of the adversaries of James Bond, to whom Boris Johnson does indeed bear a striking resemblance, will know Bambi and Thumper as henchpersons of Spectre, an organisation that Ernst Stavro Blofeld made almost as scary as The Movement.Dorries says another member of the movement is “a very frightening individual I have codenamed Dr No”. Dorries quotes a source saying: “He [Gove] has been a big part of the plan to nuke Boris forever, and here he was in no way benefiting from all of his plotting and meddling. He’s also been building up Kemi Badenoch as the next leader of the Conservative Party, because that was part of the plan and it still is. He’s been mentoring Kemi for a long time, possibly, originally, at Dougie’s behest.” Although she recognises it's actually pretty rough not having enough money, her portrayal of poverty as uniquely fostering compassion, generosity of spirit and the capacity for love as a superior alternative to actually being able to buy enough to eat is mostly so completely over the top that even she has to rein herself in and a paragraph pops up to remind us that it is also wretched.

This type of book is usually my genre of choice – I am a child of the 1950’s and raised in a Roman Catholic household. I claim no Parliamentary expenses and use my outside earnings from writing to subsidise my public role as an MP," Dorries has said. "I discovered writing very late and as a result I would encourage anyone, even people who claim not to be creative, to try and find a creative hobby. You never know where it may lead. For me, it led to a deep contentment and happiness that has helped me to fulfil so many other roles in my life and, without doubt, I am a better MP as a result of the enjoyment I derive from writing in my spare time." Or you might know her as the one-time contestant on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, who chowed down on baked spiders and camel toes in the Australian jungle, as you do. As a distillation of what Team Boris argues when asked how the man who won an 80-seat House of Commons majority was out of office within three years, it takes some beating.Quoting a source she says: “When Munira did her big resignation thing over Boris throwing the Jimmy Savile criticism at Starmer for never having prosecuted him when he was the Director of Public Prosecutions, it was so obviously the ‘time to kill Boris’ trigger. When you know how they operate, you can sniff out what was behind it and how it was staged.” When I chose this book to read I was oblivious to the fact it is written by Nadine Dorries, an MP known for taking part in some reality show I never watch, which was just as well as I was not influenced by the authors previous fame and did genuinely find the book engaging. The setting was well described and the hardships palpable. Dorries creates characters you learn to love and hate. The tragedy, laughter, spirit of community and religion are well depicted throughout the novel. We know, too, that 148 Tory MPs then voted no confidence in Mr Johnson, because the result was announced by the 1922 Committee. It amounted to 41 per cent of Tory MPs.