While David Cameron is unlikely to mind losing Nadine Dorries to the Australian jungle for up to a month as the Conservative MP competes in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, the public (not least her Bedfordshire constituents) might take a different view. Dorries, who has already arrived in Queensland for the show, has refused to forego her parliamentary salary for the period, meaning that she’ll receive as much as £5,478 during her time on the programme (as well as expenses of around £3,218), in addition to a fee of up to £40,000. She said:
I’ve worked seven years as an MP and I’ve never taken a day off work in Parliamentary time. I’ve worked all through recess and I only had four days off this summer.
Parliament is in half-term while I’m there. I’ve not done anything to prepare for the jungle. I worked right up until I left the UK for Australia.
It’s true that Parliament is in recess for a week from 13 November, but her appearance could last for up to a month. At a time when Dorries has voted for cuts to benefits for the poorest people in the country, there’s something faintly outrageous about her claiming her public salary whilst gallivanting around the Australian bush.
Update: Labour List notes that as a member of “the Panel of Chairs”, whose role is to “chair Public Bill Committees and other general committees”, Dorries receives an additional £8,166 a year, which brings her expected remuneration whilst in the jungle to £6,158.
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