Nadine Dorries named new UK Culture Secretary

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has named Nadine Dorries MP as the new UK Culture Secretary following a cabinet reshuffle of key ministerial positions in the UK government. Dorries replaces Oliver Dowden MP, who was himself appointed to the role in February 2020, following a cabinet reshuffle in which he replaced former MP and now Baroness Nicky Morgan. Dowden has been appointed to the role of chairman of the Conservative Party and minister without portfolio.

Delighted to be appointed Chairman of the @Conservatives by @BorisJohnson.

I can’t wait to support the Conservative family to level up the country and build back better.

With #CPC21 in just a couple of weeks, I can’t wait to see you all in Manchester.

— Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) September 15, 2021

His short tenure as UK Culture Secretary has proved to be a tumultuous one for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), in which the department came under criticism for its role in UK gambling regulation. In December, DCMS kicked off the long-awaited review of the Gambling Act 2005, something in which Dowden would play a key role in putting together. Dowden was also forced to address the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the UK’s football clubs, walking the government back from a potential ban on sponsorships by gambling operators after criticism from severely impacted clubs. In April, DCMS launched a parliamentary inquiry into the collapse into administration of sports trading firm Football Index, an inquiry which has yet to deliver its full report. One of Dowden’s last official acts as UK Culture Secretary was to appoint Marcus Boyle as the new chairman of the UK Gambling Commission earlier this month.

And a big thank you to @OliverDowden who was always willing to engage with the industry. Congrats and very best wishes for the future in his new role at @cabinetofficeuk

— Betting and Gaming Council (@BetGameCouncil) September 15, 2021

A trained nurse, Dorries was elected as the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire in May 2005. Dorries notably appeared as a contestant in the ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2012, after which she was briefly suspended from the Conservative party. In July 2019, Dorries returned to frontline politics, serving firstly as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Care, before being appointed to Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care in May 2020. She has, on average, voted against greater gambling regulation in the UK, including voting against giving local government and councils powers to prevent the proliferation of FOBTs and betting shops and extending payment of the Horseracing Betting Levy to overseas bookmakers. In 2013, Dorries voted not to require those running internet and telephone gambling operations to ban those who have registered for self-exclusion, something which later reversed with the launch of the GAMSTOP UK national self-exclusion scheme. Picture: https://members.parliament.uk/member/1481/portrait https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/