Date for Mid Bedfordshire by-election is confirmed after Nadine Dorries finally quits

A by-election for Mid Bedfordshire has been comfirmed for Thursday, October 19, now the parliamentary seat is being officially vacated by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries.

Seven candidates have declared their intention to contest the constituency seat.

Festus Akinbusoye will represent the Conservative Party, Alistair Strathern is standing for the Labour Party and Emma Holland-Lindsay is the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Dave Holland contests the seat for Reform UK, CBC chairman Gareth Mackey stands as an Independent candidate, Cade Sibley represents the Green Party, and Alan Victor is standing for the True and Fair Party.

Ms Dorries announced her intention to stand down as an MP with immediate effect on June 9th.

But she delayed her resignation to receive information from the government as to why her name was left off former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.

Central Bedfordshire Council today (Tuesday) confirmed the by-election date, after the decision by Ms Dorries enabling her to formally leave the House of Commons.

It was expected the former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport would be made a peer by Mr Johnson.

Ms Dorries won the Mid Bedfordshire seat with a majority of 24,664 in 2019. She has been elected five times in as the constituency’s MP since 2005, when she replaced Jonathan Sayeed as the Conservative candidate.

Pressure had been increasing on her to formally resign from Parliament, with more than 80,000 people signing a public petition calling for a change in the law that would force a by-election.

Ms Dorries launched a television talk show, Friday Night with Nadine, on Talk TV earlier this year.