She was rumoured to have instructed lawyers this week. Her blog confirms it this afternoon “Just For The Record“:

“I have instructed and proceeded with legal action. Obviously, I am not going to say anything at all at this stage, other than that.”

Guido knows for a fact that the untrue story about her was given to some journalists, and it was alluded to in stories, it was then refined for a second more vicious smear attempt by Damian McBride in the infamous Smeargate emails.

Guido understands that legally even if the intended second round of smears were not published widely in print, she has at least two courses of action for slander and defamation because McBride telling journalists the story on his mobile would be slanderous and presumably emailing the smear to Charlie Whelan, Derek Draper and the Unite press officer Andrew Dodgshon would constitute publication (those are the known recipients of the smear at this time). There are likely to be more people who were briefed by McBride…

Knowingly and deliberately libeling someone was until not so long ago a jailable criminal offence, that has if Guido recalls correctly, been taken off the statute books. Guido has said it before; do not mess with Nadine Dorries, she is a Tory tigress…