Page 14 Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020
Henry DeeDes
... sees the Home Secretary
endure a Labour barrage
‘Self-isolate!’ heckled Shaun Bailey (Con,
West Bromwich West).
It was only when Mr Corbyn arrived at
the ever fattening folder of evidence
against the Home Secretary that he began
to gain traction. He pointed out there had
been complaints from three different
departments she had worked in down
the years, which he claimed ‘tens of thou-
sands of pounds’ of government money
were used to cover up.
Boris put on his best show of support. The
Home Secretary is doing a fine job, he
insisted. ‘I’ll take no lessons about bullying
from the leader of a party where female MPs
were bullied so badly in the matter of anti-
Semitism that they actually left the party.’
The Tory cheap seats roared. Of course
they did. Such is British politics at the
moment they’d roar at a Ken Loach com-
edy. Mr Corbyn then raised a recent storyabout a civil servant who worked under
Patel in the Department of Work and Pen-
sions who reportedly tried to kill herself.
Oooh. Gloves off time.
The Prime Minister was flapping. He
branded Mr Corbyn ‘a full-time neo-Marx-
ist’ who had no control over his own party.
A duff response.T
HrOuGHOuT this heavy artil-
lery fire, Mrs Patel sat almost
motionless, her jaw clenched in
defiance like a beleaguered police
suspect sticking doggedly to their story.
Occasionally, she would mutter something
out loud – whether for the Prime Minister’s
benefit or her own, it was hard to say.
As the session rode on, it didn’t get any
easier. Matthew Pennycook (Lab, Green-wich and Woolwich) demanded confirma-
tion that any Cabinet member found in
breach of the ministerial code would be
sacked. Thangam Debbonaire (Lab, Bristol
West) said under the Government ‘allega-
tions of bullying or just being incompetent
get you promoted, whereas standing up to
it, you lose your job’. Probably worth point-
ing out Mrs Debonnaire was one of a number
of Labour MPs to have previously com-
plained about life under Jeremy Corbyn.
The session overran, the first time it has
been allowed to under Speaker Hoyle, who
then made us endure an overly long, not to
mention wildly self-indulgent, resignation
speech from ex-business secretary Andrea
Leadsom. Goodness it dragged on. The
Home Secretary, I noticed, smiled and
laughed politely throughout. Grateful, per-
haps, that the focus had finally shifted away
from her. But for how long?J
ereMy Corbyn’s yellowing
fangs were practically slob-
bering when he rocked up at
PMQs yesterday.
On the strike of noon, the old
boy sat bolt upright, his feet breaking
into an excited little tap dance. Totter-
ing into the chamber at that very
moment was Priti Patel. As the Home
Secretary made her way awkwardly to
her seat, Jezza’s eyes pursued her the
way a guileless labrador follows a cat’s
progress along the garden wall.
There was a momentary hush when she
took her place in the centre of the Govern-
ment’s front bench. Was that a sisterly nod
of support across the divide from shadow
Leader of the House Valerie Vaz? Chancel-
lor rishi Sunak caressed her shoulder as if
to say ‘tin hat on, old girl’.
This may have been Prime Minister’s
Questions but no one doubted it was the
Home Secretary who was in for the rough-
est time. With accusations of bullying
mounting by the minute, her Labour oppo-
nents smelt blood.
It took a while for Mr Corbyn to wade into
the row. With a killer virus on the loose, he
could hardly be seen to be getting his pri-
orities wrong, meaning we were served up a
bit of coronavirus back-and-forth as an
amuse-bouche.
When Mr Corbyn finally got to the bully-
ing, he did his best to cock it up – as he often
does when presented with a golden oppor-
tunity. He demanded the Government com-
mit to an independent investigation, some-
thing the Prime Minister pointed out that
Michael Gove had done on Monday.
Once again the Labour leader accused
Boris of being ‘part-time Prime Minister’
for not addressing the matter earlier.
Groans thudded around the chamber. What
was a decent attack line last week had since
g a t h e r e d s e v e r a l l a y e r s o f m i l d e w.Mrs Patel sat
motionless
under fire as
Boris flapped
Duff response: Boris Johnson with Priti Patel yesterday