British Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has said she will learn next week whether she is to be restored to the party whip following her appearance on I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!.
The Mid-Bedfordshire MP, who returned from Australia yesterday, said she had had a “good-natured” meeting with Government Chief Whip Sir George Young.
She told BBC Three Counties Radio that their talks had been adjourned and would resume next week.
Ms Dorries expressed confidence that the party whip - which was suspended by Sir George after she left the country to appear on the ITV reality show - would be restored.
“I think we will be fine with the whip,” she said.
“We had a very good-natured, a very happy meeting. We have adjourned the meeting and we are reconvening this time next week, if not before.”
Ms Dorries, who will not be able to stand again as a Tory candidate unless she regains the whip, insisted that she wanted to carry on in parliament.
“Of course I want to be an MP,” she said.
“An MP is not doing a job, it is a life choice. If I didn’t want to make that life choice I wouldn’t be doing it, I can assure you.”
Ms Dorries shocked her Westminster colleagues and Mid-Bedfordshire constituents alike when it emerged she had flown to Australia for the TV show. Under the programme’s rules, she was not allowed to announce her appearance in advance.
She insists she had permission from then chief whip Andrew Mitchell to take a month off in November, but admits she did not tell him what for.
PA