Nadine Dorries reveals 'desperate' Cabinet Office threats as she prepares to ... trends now

Nadine Dorries last night accused the Government of making a 'desperate' attempt to stop the publication of her explosive book.

She warned that her refusal to reveal its contents could lead to her being blacklisted from future public appointments, potentially including a peerage.

When the Cabinet Office discovered that Ms Dorries was writing The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, she was told by Whitehall officials that she should share a pre-publication transcript to allow them to vet any confidential material.

Senior civil servants cited the Government's so-called 'Radcliffe Rules', which state that 'ministers should relinquish all government material when ceasing to hold a role' and set out limits on access to official papers by former ministers.

But the former culture secretary declined to do so after she received legal advice that the rules were not applicable to the book – and did not want to do so voluntarily on the grounds that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, who would have had the ultimate power to vet the contents, is criticised in the book.

Last night, on the eve of the book's serialisation in tomorrow's Mail, Ms Dorries received a letter from Simon Madden, the director of propriety and ethics at the Cabinet Office.