‘They’ve let people down badly’ – Nadine Dorries on church abuse

Cathy Newman: Nadine Dorries, given your own experience of abuse in the church and trying to get the church to recognise what had happened to you, do you sympathise with Matthew Ineson, who you heard talking there?
Nadine Dorries: Well, sadly, I think what Matthew said was just all too familiar because as you know, Cathy, because we’ve discussed this, I had a meeting myself with bishops in the House of Lords. And Matthew, I think, used the word ‘underhand’. That’s very much how I felt about how I was, how my case and my complaint was handled, particularly as it took such a long time for me to… I didn’t even kind of out myself, I was outed by somebody else. But it’s what happens behind the scenes I think, that the bishops, I think what has happened here and what we’re seeing right now is that they probably thought that if Welby went, then it would be like lancing the boil, that this would all go away. And yet what we clearly see are a group of people who are completely out of their depth, have no idea how to handle complaints in an appropriate way. And what they’re doing is attempting to cover up the fact that they’re trying to reinstate somebody, in Matthew’s case, is just shocking.
In my case they failed to come to any, to find out anything of any substance regarding my own case. And yet I know, because I saw another girl the same age as me, as I’ve said, in the front of a car with this man who looked terrified, I simply cannot believe that they took the person who abused me in for training, into the Church of England for two years, and then farmed him out to a parish in Norfolk, a rural parish, at the same time as telling everybody he’d gone to America. So they do cover up.
Cathy Newman: And do you think, therefore, that the Archbishop of York, who Matthew called for his resignation, do you think he should quit? Do you think other bishops who have been named in different reports, various different reports, do you think they should quit?
Nadine Dorries: Yeah, but it shouldn’t be Harriet Harman having to lay down an amendment to a bill. It shouldn’t be you doing this on Channel 4. Their own decency should make them realise that this is the only option which faces them. They’ve let people down badly. They’ve attempted to cover up wrongdoing in the church. They’ve let people down. And I think they have no option but to resign. All of those named in the Makin Report, all of those who know that they’ve had complaints made to them on which they’ve not acted. The three bishops who I spoke to in the House of Lords, who sat me 12 foot down a room and treated me as though I was a contagion when they were talking to me, all of them should resign. And Harriet Harman is quite right. I think the Church of England has forfeited its right for bishops to sit in the House of Lords now. That needs to stop too. And I really hope Harriet is successful with that.
Cathy Newman: Okay, but you’re talking about overturning hundreds of years of history here. Can the church continue? Can it still call itself the established church or is it now curtains for that?
Nadine Dorries: I said over the Conservative Party, that political parties do die, institutions do over a long period of time where there is hierarchy and deference. Toxic cultures do develop. And when that does happen, then serious consequences follow as a result. So whether the church is unable to survive.
Cathy Newman: So no established church?
Nadine Dorries: The Church of England now in order to survive, needs to do something very drastic and very positive about the issues it is facing now. The problem is I don’t think they’re able to. They are, I think, desperately trying to survive, trying to shut this story down, trying to cover up what has happened. And the more they continue to do that, the worse the situation will get and the more vulnerable their long term future will be. And so they need to address these issues quickly, in a very positive way, or I think they, by their own hand, they will become more vulnerable as an institution and will find it difficult to survive.