Nadine Dorries’ Boris Johnson book has hit a legal snag

Nadine Dorries’ book on the downfall of Boris Johnson has hit a roadblock and will now be delayed until November because of “the required legal process”, the publisher has said.

The former culture secretary, who resigned as an MP last weekend, has been writing a book all about her former boss, called The Plot: the Political Assassination of Boris Johnson.

It had been scheduled for release on 28 September, just before the Conservative party conference in Manchester. But it will now be released on 9 November, HarperCollins said.

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”.

HarperCollins has described Dorries’ book as a “seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative party became a pariah” and will feature “unparalleled access, from multiple inside sources talking with astonishing candour”.

But Dorries is not happy about the way it has been discussed.

Writing on Twitter/X today she said:

Meanwhile it comes after Dorries resigned last Saturday, two and a half months after first announcing her intention to step down as an MP in protest at not receiving a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours list.

She has previously accused Rishi Sunak of “duplicitously and cruelly” blocking her from getting a peerage and when she resigned, she laid into him.

Meanwhile, it is not her first book, however her previous books have all been fiction, with some pretty saucy scenes which we very much hope will not be present in the Plot.

Even if it takes a little while longer to come out, we're sure it will be an entertaining read.

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