The former Tory culture secretary Nadine Dorries has broken her silence after being accused of “making a mockery” of her constituents by failing to represent them.

The Mid Bedfordshire MP, who hasn’t spoken in the Commons for more than a year and last voted there in April, insisted she was “working daily” for local people.

She told the News Agents podcast: “Myself and my team of four caseworkers are working daily with constituents. 

“I understand that political opponents, such as Labour-run Flitwick Town Council, are choosing the summer and news hungry outlets in the summer recess to be noticed.

“However, we are just getting on with the work.”

It followed growing calls for Rishi Sunak to help oust her from parliament, something which could be done by MPs passing a motion to expel her.

The device was last used in 1954 to remove the Tory MP Peter Baker after he was jailed for seven years for forgery, leading to a by-election.

Ms Dorries, 66, announced in June that she would be stepping down as an MP with “immediate effect” after being denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.

She changed her mind a week later, saying she was staying on until she had an explanation of why she didn’t make the cut for the House of Lords. 

Two town councils in her constituency, Flitwick and Shefford, have since criticised her for failing to represent her constituents adequately. 

Visiting Mid Bedfordshire, where she won a 24,000 vote majority in 2019, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Sunak should remove the whip from “dosser” Dorries.

He said: “Rishi Sunak should sack Nadine Dorries today. He should have done it weeks ago.

“Nadine is letting down the people of Mid Bedfordshire. She’s totally absent. She said she’d resign and she doesn’t. People are pretty angry locally.”

The PM previously said Ms Dorries’s voters “aren’t being properly represented”, but has not moved to expel her, prompting Sir Ed to call him “weak”.

Ms Dorries has not been seen in her constituency for “years”, according to several people who spoke to the PA news agency in Ampthill, where Sir Ed was visiting.

“I can’t remember the last time she was in the area,” local resident Carole Richardson said, adding Ms Dorries should “show up or shove off.”

Penny Ling, 72, branded the local MP an “absolute disgrace”.

Ms Dorries still hosts a weekly chat show on Talk TV and has written a book titled The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, to be published in September.

Alsitair Strathern, Labour’s general election candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, who hopes to take the seat in a by-election, said Mr Sunak should “get a grip” of the situation. 

He said: “People have felt neglected and underrepresented in Parliament and the fact that she’s been able to come out and say she was resigning with immediate effect and then just continue doing nothing for weeks and weeks, leaving people completely in limbo, is really driving people I think to their wits’ end.”