David Cameron is probably hoping that Nadine Dorries will get a return trip to the jungle, following her latest remarks this week. The Tory MP, who only recently had the whip restored following her unauthorised foray on to TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! declared yesterday that she was mulling the possibility of standing as a joint candidate for the Tories and UKIP: the party that has dominated recent headlines, caused copious strife for senior Conservatives and shows little sign of fading away. A recent law change will enable candidates to have the logos of more than one party on ballot papers, so the suggestion is at least valid.

Dorries’ suggestion is not without merit: she is right to point out that many members of her local association “feel very much as though they have a huge amount of empathy with UKIP”, and that it would be “a travesty if UKIP came in and took the seats off our councillors, or indeed me” when many of their beliefs and policies are similar. A joint ticket would appeal to many Eurosceptic Tory candidates, and enable Tory voters who want out of Europe to express their beliefs without having to vote for UKIP and risk losing a seat to Nigel Farage’s rival party. Dorries is also quite correct when she says that “a divided right allows the left to get in” and that “to stop Labour getting back into power in 2015, we need to look at imaginative ideas”.

However, the unilateral manner in which she has expressed these ideas will surely undermine David Cameron’s management strength, and have the adverse effect of making the Tory ranks appear weaker and more divided than ever. A Conservative Party spokesman was forced to announce that “this is not party policy and it’s not going to happen”, with Cameron himself stating that his party “doesn’t do pacts and deals”: an ironic comment if ever there was one, given his status as the leader of a Coalition.

Dorries would have been advised to have taken her ideas directly to Cameron in private, to gauge his opinion, as her idea would have to be approved from the top in order to happen. Naturally for Dorries, given her exhibitionist record, this was not her preferred route, so it is almost inconceivable that the leadership would ever allow it even if she could make a convincing case. The result? One possible route for confronting the UKIP “menace” has now been lost. Meanwhile, Cameron’s beleaguered leadership has been undermined again. Another bad day at the office for the Tories – and they cannot afford too many more.