UK Conservatives suspend lawmaker over reality show

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne speaks at the Global Investment Conference 2012 in London July 26, 2012.

LONDON (Reuters) - A Conservative lawmaker who called British Prime Minister David Cameron and finance minister George Osborne "arrogant posh boys" has been suspended from the ruling party after deciding to take part in a reality television show in the Australian jungle.

Nadine Dorries, who this year publicly raised the possibility that rebels could call a vote of no confidence unless her party changed some of its policies, will appear on ITV's "I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here".

The show, in which contestants compete for viewers' votes in a jungle camp while being challenged to eat insects and obscure offal and endure unsavory physical ordeals, could keep Dorries out of Britain for as much as a month.

"The concern is that she will not be doing parliamentary or constituency business in the meantime," a spokesman for the Conservatives, who rule in coalition with the smaller Liberal Democrats, said on Tuesday.

Dorries, who remains a member of parliament despite her suspension, had earlier said she was "doing the show because 16 million people watch it".

"Rather than MPs talking to other MPs about issues in parliament, I think MPs should be going to where people go," she said.

(Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)