Table Talk: Nadine Dorries
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nadine Dorries is one of the most recognisable Conservative politicians from the past two decades. Elected as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire in 2005, she notably clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne (who she called ‘two arrogant posh boys’) and lost the whip in 2012 when she took part in the reality show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. Loyal to Boris Johnson, she served in his government and rose to be Culture Secretary. She stood down in 2023 and went on to write about politics in the bestselling books The Plot and Downfall.
On the podcast, Nadine tells the Spectator’s executive editor Lara Prendergast about her memories of tinned burgers and Sunday lunches as a child, working long shifts as a nurse in Warrington and what it was like spending a year in Zambia. She also explains the ‘relentless’ but ‘collegiate’ atmosphere of Parliament and how she once saw a mouse at the Commons’ salad bar. Nadine explains what it is like to have recently used the weight-loss jab Mounjaro and why, in her family, she is still the ‘queen of the Sunday roast’.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
| 0:06.9 | Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online. |
| 0:12.6 | Alongside that, you get a £20, John Lewis or Waitrose voucher. |
| 0:16.6 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:26.0 | Thank you. Go to spectator.co.uk forward slash voucher. Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectator's Food and Drink podcast. |
| 0:31.0 | I'm Laura Prendergast, and today I'm delighted to be joined by Nadine Dorese. |
| 0:35.8 | Nadine is a British author and former conservative politician. |
| 0:39.7 | She entered Parliament in 2005 as MP for Mid-Bevichure, a seat she then held until |
| 0:45.1 | 23. From 2021 to 2022, she served as Secretary of State for Digital Culture, Media and Sport. |
| 0:54.0 | Outside of politics, Nadine is a prolific writer |
| 0:56.3 | producing both historical fiction and political nonfiction. Her 2024 book, The Self-Distruction |
| 1:03.3 | of the Conservative Party, reflected on her time in government and on Westminster's culture. |
| 1:09.2 | Nadine, welcome to Table Talk. Thank you. Great to be here. |
| 1:12.4 | We always start at the very beginning. |
| 1:14.0 | What are your earliest memories of food? |
| 1:17.7 | Goblin-tinned hamburgers and Frey Entos, Devon Mutton Pie, both in tins. |
| 1:26.2 | Are those happy memories? |
| 1:27.8 | Yeah, I love them. |
| 1:29.8 | The Goblin Tin hamburgers were like in a yellow tin. |
| 1:33.2 | I think it was red writing on it and you open the tin. |
| 1:36.0 | It was kind of flat round tin. |
| 1:37.4 | You open the tin that be four hamburgers inside. |
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