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A row is erupting between the government and former culture secretary Nadine Dorries over her refusal to submit the manuscript of her “damning” new book about Boris Johnson’s downfall for review.
Dorries, one of Johnson’s staunchest allies, has declared she intends to reveal the “political dark arts” behind a so-called “plot” to force the former prime minister from Downing Street in summer 2022 in her forthcoming book.
However, just weeks ahead of its planned publication on November 9, government insiders have raised concerns that the Cabinet Office has not had sight of the text for review under government guidelines known as the Radcliffe Rules.
The publication date closely follows the King’s Speech on November 7, in which King Charles III will set out the government’s programme of legislation for the next session of parliament.
Dorries left government last September and quit as an MP earlier this month, accusing prime minister Rishi Sunak of “abandoning the fundamental principles of Conservatism” and sparking a by-election in her former seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
The ministerial code holds that former ministers who intend to publish their “memoirs” are “required to submit the draft manuscript in good time before publication to the cabinet secretary and to conform to the principles set out in the Radcliffe report of 1976”.
The Cabinet Office informally advises former frontbenchers to allow a minimum of three months for officials to examine a manuscript under the rules, according to those familiar with the process.
The Radcliffe rules were designed in the 1970s to prevent publication of material by former ministers that endangered national security, harmed the UK’s international reputation or breached the confidentiality of government business.
Dorries’ publisher, HarperCollins, has hit back saying that her book is “not a memoir”, suggesting it does not fall within the remit of these rules. It is not expected to carry a photo of Dorries on the jacket of the book, as is common with many memoirs.
A spokesperson for the publisher said instead that the book, entitled The Plot: the Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, was “a narrative garnered from the testimony of multiple sources within Westminster”.
“We can confirm that the publication date remains November 9,” they added.
However, some officials believe that while the ministerial code specifically refers to former ministers’ “memoirs”, it is the information within a book — rather than its genre — that is the relevant factor.
One government insider told the FT: “Evidently, the subject matter covers her period in office and is therefore subject in principle to the code.
“All former ministers have submitted manuscripts for checking by civil servants against the three grounds [set out in the Radcliffe Rules] . . . She hasn’t submitted a manuscript, so we don’t know whether it contains material that would fall under the jurisdiction of the rules.”
Since 2017, the Cabinet Office has examined 24 books submitted for review under the Radcliffe Rules, including memoirs by former Tory prime minister David Cameron and former Tory health secretary Matt Hancock.
However, it is not only memoirs that have been submitted for review. An official history of the civil service co-authored by historians Rodney Lowe and Hugh Pemberton was reviewed, along with Jeremy Hunt’s book on eliminating unnecessary deaths in a post-pandemic NHS, according to those familiar with the matter.
HarperCollins has billed the book as a “seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative party became a pariah”.
It added that the story encompasses “a damning trail of treachery and deceit fuelled by an obsessive pursuit of power, which threatens to topple the very fabric of our democracy”.
Dorries declined to comment.