Nadine Dorries MP awaits Deputy Speaker result

Ms Dorries, who has been in Parliament for eight years, claims she’s likely to have been seen as the ‘new kid on the block’ in the run up to today’s result.

She said: “When the Deputy Speaker Chair came up for election I thought I would go for it, but to be honest the people who are in the front running have been in Government for up to 26 years.

“It is one of those jobs that you tend to be given or voted for on the basis of your ten years in Parliament. So it is seen as a reward for having long service.

“It is one of those traditions in parliament and we have to get away from it.

“I have been quite shocked actually when people have said to me ‘I’d love to vote for you and I’ll probably vote for you next time, but so and so has been here 16 years’.

“Other people have said they’re going to vote for the first person who asks them. If our constituents voted for us on that basis we would all be completely stuffed.

“We are supposed to be the most sophisticated electorate in the world and I have to tell you it has been, in my experience, the complete opposite of that.”

Ms Dorries, who has held the Tory MP seat for Mid Beds since the 2005 election, set her sights on being the next Deputy Speaker following Nigel Evans’ resignation, but admits her name being announced today is a long shot.

“I would absolutely love to do it,” she said. “I don’t think there is an MP in the House of Commons who is more impartial than I am and that is a key for the job.

“I’m not somebody who heckles Labour on the benches every week, I don’t do that.

“But I have to say I know two people who are in the front running and have been the longest serving, are absolute partisan people and yet the key skill for the job is to be impartial.

“I know I embody that, I know that’s in my blood and I practice that in my constituency so it kind of frustrates me.

“I have sent an email out and written to everybody, but I am aware that in some MPs’ eyes I am still the new kid on the block.

“For a position of that magnitude to be Deputy Speaker I realise that I am probably, in their eyes, in my first year of school.

“But I hope that having stood for it, when it comes to next time round, people will think ‘she’s serious about this because she stood last time’, so that’s why I’m doing it.

“I think I stand a chance of being Deputy Speaker in about 10 years from now.”

The other candidates vying for the same job include Simon Burns, with 26 years experience and favourite Eleanor Laing who has been in Parliament for 16 years.

Ms Dorries added: “I’m not expecting it, so I won’t be disappointed because of that.

“Number 10 have a candidate, Simon Burns, but I don’t think he’s going to do it.

“Eleanor Laing has been on the backbenchers for 18 years so I think she’s likely to get it because they’ll say it’s her reward.”

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, will announce the result later today.