The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

by Nadine Dorries

The explosive behind-the-scenes account of the plot to bring down Boris Johnson YOU THINK YOU LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE ELECTED ARE CHOSEN BY THE PEOPLE. THINK AGAIN. When Boris Johnson came to power in 2019, he did so with the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher. Rewriting the political map, he united a party and shattered Labour’s fabled red wall. And yet, just three years later, he was ousted by the same members who had once greeted his leadership so rapturously. What had gone so wrong? The Plot is the seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative Party became a pariah. Told with unparalleled access, from multiple inside sources talking with astonishing candour, it reveals the shocking truth about powerful forces operating behind the scenes in the heart of Westminster and those who became the architects of a Prime Minister’s downfall. This is the story of a damning trail of treachery and deceit fuelled by an obsessive pursuit of power, which threatens to topple the very fabric of our democracy.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Comedy

352 pages, Hardcover

Published April 2, 2024

About the author

Nadine Dorries was born in Liverpool in the 1950s and raised on a council estate, the daughter of a bus driver. Her first novel, THE FOUR STREETS, was inspired by memories of her childhood, particularly her Irish grandmother who she was very close to.

Nadine trained as a nurse, then followed with a successful career in which she established and then sold her own business. She has been the MP for Mid-Befordshire since 2005 and has three daughters.

Nadine is currently working on her second novel, a sequel to THE FOUR STREETS.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was sure the bit about the rabbit had to be made up by the fragrant Ms Dorries's heartless detractors. But after a few minutes of googling I see she really does claim that a shadowy member of the Downing Street cabal cut an ex-girlfriend's brother's rabbit into four pieces and nailed it to her door.

What is it with rabbits? If I were a rabbit, I think I would encourage members of my owner's family not to change romantic partners more often than was strictly necessary.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say I enjoyed reading this book because the democracy that I thought I lived in, no longer exists. This book highlights the obsessive pursuit of power by a small group of people within the Conservative Party and the telling of the story is damming!
With the exponential rise in social media the whole framework of the way we are governed is shattered! This book may be about the Tories but I'm sure that the shocking story is mirrored across all parties within the Westminster bubble.

05/07/24: it looks like the 'plotters' in Dorries' book got what they wanted: the destruction & humiliation of the Conservative Party! (Since the publication of the book, the 'plotters' have either retired from office or moved to the Labour party).

[Christopher McKeon · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are many reasons it is difficult to take Nadine Dorries’ The Plot seriously. The author has a record as an unreliable witness - she was censured by MPs for making groundless claims against a Channel 4 documentary about poverty. The portrayal of those involved is simplistic - Boris Johnson and his loyalists are all pure, honest and “nice” or “lovely”, motivated only by public service, while his opponents (Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Rishi Sunak) are duplicitous, arrogant and motivated only by power. Dorries casts herself as both a master observer of people, someone with the inside track, and yet also hopelessly naive - if she really didn’t know Cummings was leaking stories to senior journalists, she is the only person in Westminster who didn’t. The book is also in parts virtually unreadable, with Dorries presenting long monologues from her anonymous interviewees full of conspiracist speculation, unevidenced assertions and exposition that even a bad Hollywood scriptwriter would cut. But the real problem is that, shorn of all its hyperbole, what Dorries has found is that people in politics have agendas they wish to advance alongside their friends and allies. The real revelation, in a book that promised many, is that it is apparently possible to work in politics for a quarter of a century and still have no idea how politics actually works.

The reviewer is a political journalist working in Westminster, and was provided with a review copy of the book by the publisher.

[Cheryl McCall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the reviews before starting this book and now having read it myself I’m not sure why some previous reviewers chose to read it. Well actually yes I am! Yes it is a series of interviews and yes it is one sided in the respect of most of the interviewees we’re firmly on Boris’s side. However if you look at the facts presented along with what was reported in newspapers and on television then it all adds up. The chaos in the Tory party over the last few years is explained and is plausible and most readers will have worked in an environment that was manipulated by a select few. I find it disheartening at best that we seem to have no say in our country.

The author may be bias with her feelings towards Boris but this book needed to be written and it explains a lot of what was going on before, during and after covid. As a footnote when Ms Dorries appeared on tv to promote the book a number of interviewers mentioned that they had been contacted by lawyers to warn them about possible litigation. Why would that happen if there was no truth to her claims? It wouldn’t. Now I shall move on to some lighter bedtime material and hope for a decent nights sleep!

[Simon Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dearie me. This is terrible.

Two points in its favour. One, it achieves its stated aim of advancing a theory about where power really lies in Westminster. And two, it paints a sympathetic picture of Johnson which runs counter to most media coverage. It is certainly rose-tinted, but the reader will make their own judgement.

Now for why it's a bin fire.

It's written like a novel, for some bizarre reason. We open with a scene in Cabinet and I was puzzled why it was written like a fictional story in which Nadine is the main character. Dorrirs then goes the full Ludlum and writes a book about her writing this book.

Second, and related, we get long monologues from interviewees in chronological order. Reasons that this is terrible include: (1) it's highly repetitive; (2) it's sometimes really dull and tedious; (3) Dorries makes no effort to draw conclusions or make connections. We get her research, not her book.

Third, much of which she "exposes" is predictable political maneuvering more than it is dark conspiracy.

For a bonus point, she's apparently nigh on psychic, somehow anticipating the plot against Boris on the day it happened, and even the death of the Queen moments ahead. Yet the entire conspiracy, half of which is fairly unsurprising seemed to utterly pass her by. Go figure.

This amounts to the interview notes of a deranged fangirl.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, fast paced and engaging. This is a great read for anybody interested in contemporary politics in the UK.
The key problem here is that the reader has no idea how much to believe and take seriously. I don't mean that the author has made things up - I don't think that Nadine Dorries would do such a thing. When she says the Mr X told her secret fact Y or that Mrs A spilled the beans on who betrayed Mr B, then i am prepared to believe her. The problem is whether or not to believe Mr X or Mrs A. Many of the people quoted in the book are kept anonymous, so it is very difficult for an outsider to judge if they have an ulterior motive in dishing the dirt and may have been tempted to make things up or at least exaggerate what they are saying.
Ultimately there is no way of knowing if what this books tells you is true in any meaningful sense of the word.
That said, this is an enjoyable read and even if it is not all objectively true it at least lifts the lid on doings in Westminster and what people who live and work there believe might be true.

[Andrew H · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unfortunate title, as others have pointed out, as it is a book without a realistic plot. It opens with a quotation by Cicero. After this, all is mock heroic and a lesson in politics without honest politicians. As Dorries told a bemused Laura Kuenssberg, she did not write this. So, who did? Oh right, all the mysterious sources that Dorries cannot reveal. I suppose it is fitting that a book about a PM who lived in Lie Lie Land should have his story told by a devoted fantasist. "There is a tide in the affairs of men" which drowns common sense.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book deserves 1 star if treated purely as the factual account it claims to be. However, one must give the book credit for being such a carefully crafted and interesting work of fiction, which presents a story which is too conspiratorial and shady to be true, but nonetheless makes for a relatively fun read.

Dorries’ undying loyalty to Johnson is clear in this book, which lays bare the delusions which a diehard group in our society collectively labour under, and which weaves a tale of deceit and conspiracy which they sadly likely believe to be true.

[Mairi Byatt · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star, as I did laugh out loud several times! Utterly waste of paper! Westminster is Corrupt? Yes we know that! She is obsessed like a teenager over Boris Johnson? Yip knew that too! I only borrowed it as I thought there be something new to learn…No! Interesting fact, after all the media she received I thought there would be a huge waiting list , again no! I was third in the list! But I noticed Rory Stewart had a book out, I have a long time to wait for his book, 238 in line!

[Shane Chowen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Better suited to the fantasy section. Dorries succeeds only in publishing what can only be described as an almost religious tome in worship of Boris Johnson; a man she would have us believe has only virtuous faults and who is driven by public service.
With no hint of objectivity, this title takes its readers for fools to the extent it becomes fiction. And bad fiction at that.

[Owen McArdle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nadine Dorries is a bestselling author of fiction, bizarrely, and this seems to be a Boris Johnson fanfiction, essentially, with weird James Bond references. The prose isn't awful; the problem is that I don't trust that a word of it is actually true. As you might expect, the world of politics is full of flawed and evil characters conspiring against the saintly Boris, make of that what you will...

[Errol Elliott]

What can I say...

[Sue Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Curiousity got the better of me so I borrowed this book from the library (as I couldn’t bear to part with hard earned cash for any work by ND). I really have tried to read it with an open mind…. But it’s very difficult given the author’s reputation. How much of this is really true…? We will never know, especially given the rafts and rafts of anonymous input.

[Sean Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many half truths and reads like a weird Boris fan-fiction.

[Gary Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms Dorries makes some pretty amazing claims in this book, all of which would entirely justify the price tag if we could be certainn they were true. However, it is hard to escape nagging doubts about some of her claims not least because they are presented by nameless witnesses whose identity the author claims she has agreed to protect by assigning each person the name of a character from the James Bond films. That aside, she certainly relates almost word for word some very interesting conversations with political figures who are happy and willing to be named and in doing so provides an interesting and at times very surprising perspective of how well known and not so well known political characters operate in Westminster.

Unfortunately the identity of the key villain in this book, (she calls him Dr No) is never revealed and since he is alleged to be responsible for much of the 'Plot', it inevitably leaves one wondering how much of what we are reading can be taken literally. Having said all that, this is an easy, informative, and highly entertaining read for anyone interested in taking a glimpse behing the scenes of the British political world.

[Jerry Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

An inverted pyramid of piffle. Possibly the worst book I’ve read in a long long time. There’s so much wrong with it that it’s difficult to know where to start. It’s badly written, it’s hugely repetitive, it lacks any objectivity and it’s very selective in its use of known facts. In Nads eyes, Boris is a man of such intellectual stature, such unimpeachable character, such utter perfection that he clearly is a god amongst us mere mortals. There isn’t a single one of Boris’s many indiscretions that she doesn’t find a way to rewrite in his favour. Unfortunately, even if her ludicrous theories were correct, then Boris was a leader so weak and lacking in perception that he constantly got manipulated by the people around him. He got bounced into policy decisions he didn’t agree with, he was fooled into appointing enemies or incompetents into every role around him, he even got fooled into fronting a Leave campaign by people who actually never wanted to win the referendum!
I can imagine the sense of horror experienced by Nadine when, after publishing this book, it neither entered the best seller lists nor led to the downfall of any of the villains she lays into. If there was a single figure who bought about the end of Boris Johnson, who’s actions and inactions led to one of the most spectacular losses of electoral success, it’s the man on the front cover of this book, Boris Johnson himself.

[Rebecca Hemshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t at all interested in reading this book until I watched a specific episode of Laura Kuensberg’s Sunday show featuring both Kemi Badenoch and Nadine Dorries and their sparring piqued my interest. I did read it with a good dose of salt close by, and at times Dorries’ sycophantic reviews of Boris Johnson were nauseating, but I could see an element of truth in some of the claims she makes about the back office power struggles and Machiavellian machinations of Dominic Cummings and his cronies. Unfortunately having read the book I am now even more despairing of the state of British politics and feel strongly opposed to voting for either of the two major political parties in the upcoming General election. A real dilemma for someone who strongly believes in the principle of using her vote wisely as there seems to be a general lack of integrity, honesty and wisdom in our politicians today.

[Christine Rennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Plot by Nadine Dorries is the story of the political assassination of Boris Johnson. I read the book because I was curious as to what Nadine had to say, and I am left wondering if there is a cabal of men who have conspired for many years to insert politicians and civil servants in various roles and constituencies.
Some of the men mentioned are well known faces, others not so well known and they seem to have the power to decide who shall be the Prime Minister of the country and for how long.
Only time will tell whether the stories are true and whether there will be someone of such moral fortitude and strength of character that they can overcome this disparate group of men, or whether the Conservative Party dissolves into quarrelling groups of politicians.
Who knows and who will care?

[Paul Snelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the disturbing features of conspiracy theories is the residue of plausibility when all the batshit-crazy has been boiled away. And so it is with Nadine (The culture secretary who didn’t know her job https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve63p... ), though her laughable appraisal of Boris Johnson is a give away. There’s no analysis– it’s just reportage of a handful of interviews which may or may not have been embellished or manufactured. The one thing that comes across more than anything is that nearly everyone in power is in it completely for themselves. A true bunch of narcissistic sociopathic shits. Ladies and gentlemen, our leaders. Read and weep.

[Barbara Deeprose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting!

Some of this book seemed so unbelievable I found it hard to believe these things really happened, but given it was written by an ex MP, who was there, I have to take it as true. I wish more of the sources of information could have been named, but understand why they would not want this to happen. I also had to bear in mind that Nadine and Boris were good friends, so could somethings be a little sugar coated? I also wished that there had been an explanation of what happened to the cash for the NHS we were promised after Brexit. Nevertheless, it is a good read and well written. Thank goodness I will never become an MP.

[Dawn Grudziak · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor book full of so called anonymous witness accounts, often same accounts from various sources to up the word count. No substantiated accounts for all we know each anonymous source could be fabricated. Scattered with Nadine’s musings, the book flitted all over with no clear context. A ramble of recited interviews with a smattering of opinions. A very poor literary effort.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I finished it!
A conspiracy theory that would have filled one side of A4, but she goes round and around and around for 351 more rather tedious pages. Clearly she adores Boris and hates Gove, but what is glaringly obvious throughout is a gaping great hole where the corroboration should be. I think Nick Robinson was correct - she's in a sulk.
Verdict? Splenetic rather than scholarly!

[Jc · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not go past 80 pages as this is barely legible. What it shows clearly is that theTory MP's, or at least the cabinet members, spend their time tripping each other and only have one goal which is to advance their political carreer.

[Connor Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

hypnotically insane; unsubstantiated nonsense

[Aster Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective taken, with partisan nature established and expected, written as a political thriller.

[Penny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no words. She had too many.

[Val Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read! What revelations

[Philip Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand why Nadine Dorries’ book “The Plot”, an account of the machinations that removed two UK Prime Ministers from office without recourse to the electorate, should have received quite poor overall average ratings from reviewers.

We all think we know what happened to Boris Johnson. We think we know what happened to Liz Truss.

Many wanted to believe that Johnson was a liar who believed in one rule for others and another for himself, because they opposed his policy on Brexit and wanted to believe that made him a bad man. The mainstream media certainly made sure that every last ounce of bad publicity was squeezed out of Partygate.

Many believe that Truss crashed the economy, because the media told us so. That she contrived to do this while UK economic growth was topping the G7 in two out of three post-Brexit years can be quietly brushed under the carpet. The left assured us that the economy had been crashed and, unlike the right, they never lie.

So a book aiming to set the record straight is immediately faced with a wall of opposition from powerful people and from general perception. It’s surprising, in the circumstances, that it should make it into print at all.

Then, naturally, it will be read by a lot of people determined to pick holes in it, as well as downvoted by people who haven’t even read it. I mean, who wants to be told that they have been played for fools and that our cherished democracy can be twisted to achieve personal ends, no matter what the public wants?

I cannot claim an open mind. I always suspected that Johnson was brought down by Remainer desire for revenge on the man who personified Brexit. I couldn’t quite work out how they had done it, or how quite so many turkey-like Conservative MPs had been persuaded to vote for Christmas.

Though I did always think that the Partygate fuss was blown way out of proportion when Currygate was a more serious case of the same sort, and largely ignored, I never expected The Privileges Committee investigation to be unbiased, and was unsurprised when it wasn’t. What I didn’t grasp was that the media would swallow wholesale the nonsense being leaked assiduously from Downing Street, or that the leaks themselves were part of an orchestrated programme and not merely random.

“The Plot” makes no pretence of impartiality. Nadine Dorries was part of Team Boris, and proud of it. But she was a cabinet minister and in a position to know a great deal more than the average reader, as well as to see the frantic paddling beneath the surface that marked the apparently serene progress of the swan of state.

I found this book an enthralling read. For me, it supplied the missing pieces in a puzzle I couldn’t quite solve.

No doubt others will dismiss it as just another conspiracy theory. And we all know that nine out of ten alleged conspiracies are really just SNAFUs.

On the other hand. We do have to remember that the tenth one really is a conspiracy. And it suits the interests of conspirators if everyone believes that the tenth was just a SNAFU, too.

[Jamad · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a word “bad”. In two words “very bad”.

Best to let the author speak for herself. If you read this book this is the prose you can expect:


“I slipped my green pass into my bag, which I hung over the back of a chair as I sat down next to him. ‘You will be okay,’ I said, and reached out to pat the back of his hand. He stared at the place where my hand had rested and looked utterly forlorn. ‘I’ll go and get us a nice cup of tea,’ I said, his almost-empty mug giving me the excuse I needed”

“I clicked off the phone and took a deep breath. This was a dilemma. I would have to give up everything I loved, the job, possibly even my role as an MP. The people who I needed to speak to could lose their jobs too; it just wouldn’t work.”

“Phew,’ I said as I slipped onto a stool and looked behind me. No one was watching, my arrival already old news. I shrugged my trench coat down from my shoulders and it fell over the back of the stool as I pushed my hair away from my face.”

“It is a bright sunny morning as I leave my flat and head out across the river to meet with Boris. My new trainers squeaked annoyingly, backpack slung across my shoulders. I was embarking upon a new phase in my life.”

“It was early Sunday morning and he greeted me in the kitchen of his house in the Cotswolds. Both the lids of the Aga were up and I had to take a very deep breath. I’m a woman of a certain age who has had an Aga since I left the poverty of my background. However, you can never escape your upbringing, and the thing about an Aga is, when the lids are up, the heat is escaping.
Boris was pouring hot water into a coffee pot. Carrie, as always, serene, unphased by her two toddlers, has taken both upstairs to bath and dress them and has left us a plate of warm fresh croissants. Dilyn, the dog, has jumped onto a chair and is trying his best to reach the counter and snaffle them. While Boris chatted, I surreptitiously lowered the Aga lids onto the hot plates and my zen returned.
‘The blasted boiler broke,’ he said, as he caught me with a glance from the corner of his eye. ‘It was all the heating we had over Christmas.”

[Guy Clapperton · Rating 2 out of 5]

The frustrating thing about this book is that there may be a kernel of truth about which we should be concerned buried in it somewhere. Dominic Cummings has certainly been on record saying “they” installed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister with a view to getting rid of him quickly. You don’t have to be a supporter - and I’m not - to deplore that, coming from someone unelected.

But it’s buried among so much junk. From the woman who sat in front of a House of Commons committee claiming Channel 4 should not be funded by the license fee payer (it’s not) and that it would do well to be privatised like Channel 5 (which was never public) it’s no surprise she misses so much; she bemoans Liz Truss’ ejection as prime minister with no reference to the utter chaos of her last day in Parliament as PM, for example. That was always going to end disastrously.

The other noticeable thing is that the book needed an edit. Dorries does all of her interviews on audio and refers to “translating” them - a proper editor would have quietly changed that to “transcribing”. She also says at one point she’s interviewing Boris Johnson on the day after the Coronation; she then says a surprisingly large amount of MPs are in Westminster Abbey occupying prime seats. The day *after* the Coronation?

And the end of the revised edition just finished with a self-congratulatory note about how important the book is. This needed cutting.

It’s not well written. It’s chaotic and it’s poorly edited. Which is a shame because in terms of a bunch of self-important grandees actually controlling the Conservative Party instead of its members, there might actually be a point worth making in there somewhere.