The PM publicly humiliated me in front of the entire nation, what did I do to deserve that?

By Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail
Updated: 03:38 EDT, 12 September 2011

Embarrassed: Nadine felt humiliated by David Cameron

Last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions was always going to be a tense time for me.

PMQs was to be followed by a 90-minute debate on abortion and I was down as the first to speak. Just before the debate I learned that six years’ hard work had been wiped out by Evan Harris, a former Liberal Democrat MP and now an influential official within the party.

He had persuaded the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, to blackmail the Prime Minister by insisting that if the Department of Health did not withdraw its support for my abortion amendment, Lib Dem peers in the Lords would vote down the entire Health and Social Care Bill.

I believe the upper limit for abortion is too high at 24 weeks and that women presenting for an abortion should be made an offer of independent counselling.

I had previously campaigned to reduce the abortion time limit and now I had tabled an amendment to the Bill that would mean all women seeking an abortion were offered advice independent of the abortion provider. As a result of this, my family and I were subjected to an incredible amount of personal abuse that grew in volume as the debate drew nearer.

I had plenty of opponents inside the House as well. I have always thought of our whips’ office as a room full of inefficient worriers, but for my debate they had every angle covered.

Health Ministers were instructed to vote against my amendment – unheard of for a conscience-vote issue. A letter was sent to MPs advising them they should vote against me. The message was clear: vote for her and no job for you.

Two Conservative MPs who are also doctors were lined up to speak against me in order to undermine the credibility of the amendment. Stories were placed in The Guardian ridiculing it. A Health Minister spent a day-and-a-half in the corridors and tea rooms briefing against it.

A Lib Dem MP put down a Government-friendly amendment to take up debate time. His office guest that morning had been Evan Harris.

I went into PMQs exhausted. I was angry at Nick Clegg, disappointed with David Cameron and anxious because I had been working right down to the wire and hadn’t been able to finish my speech.

The atmosphere in the chamber in those few minutes before the Prime Minister took his seat was muggy with anticipation. I tried to ask him a question.

Mocking: Sir George Young and Nick Clegg snigger as David Cameron responds to Ms Dorries

I reminded him that the Liberal Democrats make up just 8.7 per cent of this Parliament yet dictate policy on free schools, health, immigration and now abortion.

I had to sit down as the Speaker shouted order. The cacophony had been ferocious and the microphones couldn’t pick up my voice. The Labour Party is mainly pro-abortion and they were angry that my amendment had necessitated the abortion debate.

The Speaker calmed the House and asked me to finish my question. I asked the Prime Minister if he didn’t think it was about time that he told the Deputy Prime Minister who was the boss.

The House erupted and I was hit by a wall of noise. The Prime Minister rose to his feet. He knew how angry I was. He knew how hard I had worked on this amendment and how important it was not just to me, but to the thousands of women it would help.

He said: ‘I know the honourable Lady is extremely frustrated . . .’ The House exploded again with raucous schoolboy laughter. I waited anxiously for him to continue but the laughter increased. He tried again, feebly, and then sat down, announcing: ‘I am just going to give up.’

A voice inside my head screamed: ‘You can’t leave it at that. You can’t just give up.’ But he had. The chamber grew hotter and the noise more thunderous as all around me people laughed. I felt my cheeks burn.

I sat for ten minutes trying to read through the speech but then realised I had to get out of the chamber to compose myself.

The Prime Minister had publicly humiliated me in front of the entire nation in a way that I knew would be perceived as sexist. I felt incredibly hurt and confused. What had I done to deserve that? I thought of my mum who watches PMQs each week to see if she can catch a glimpse of me. What would she make of it?

As I left the chamber, my daughter texted me. It read: ‘Mum, I am so proud of you.’

The next person to contact me was the Prime Minister. His message began: ‘I am so sorry . . .’ He texted how much he had ‘desperately wanted to pass my amendment’, but that there had been problems.

Backbencher Nadine Dorries speaking in the House of Commons during the debate over plans to bar abortion providers from giving advice to pregnant women

Nadine said the abortion debate was the fiercest she's ever experienced

A later communication from him began: ‘I am genuinely, desperately sorry, it was an entirely innocent mistake. I got into a mess and couldn’t get out.’ 
I believe him. I understand that the first thing he asked for after PMQs was for a phone to text me.

I like a Prime Minister who has the humility to say sorry in such a genuine way. I know when someone is being sincere or not in an apology and he definitely was.

I loathe sycophancy and David Cameron has never had that from me. I am from a Liverpool council house, he went to Eton – there isn’t much synergy between our lives and, therefore, I regard it almost as a duty to regale him with some down-to-earth common sense every now and then. I can’t be angry with anyone other than the Liberal Democrats who tried to destroy the attempt to provide women with greater choice.

The abortion debate itself was the fiercest hour I’ve ever experienced. As I stood to speak, one furious MP after another on the Labour benches stood to attack me. They were virtually frothing at the mouth.

I still cannot understand why anyone would object to a woman receiving the offer of pre-abortion counselling? Just an offer, not compulsory. No delay to the process. Why would people object to the fact that such a move may reduce the number of abortions ? Are we proud of having the highest number of abortions in Western Europe?

But taking on abortion means you see politics at its ugliest. I called the vote. My personal inclination was not to call because to lose the vote would look as though we had been defeated. However, too many people had supported me and wanted to draw a line in the sand.Given the pressure MPs had been put under, to have a vote of 118 with three Cabinet Ministers (368 voted against the amendment) was pretty amazing.

So where are we now? The Government is investigating how counselling is delivered and how it can be improved. The question of whether those who are paid to carry out abortions can, without influence, carry out the counselling is central to the debate. At least we have shone a spotlight on this issue. We won.

Fundraising is the next job and the aim is to get the upper limit down from 24 weeks to 20 before the lifetime of this Parliament is over.

I would like to say that we have reason on our side but then, in politics, when the issue of abortion is raised, all reason seems to fly out of the whips’ office window.