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Labor vice leader Angela Rayner was accused today of calling a Conservative MP ‘scum’ after she claimed that members of the opposition front see the coronavirus as a ‘good crisis’.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Conservative supporter Chris Clarkson suggested that leading Labor figures viewed the current outbreak as an opportunity to be exploited.
Corbynite far left, Mrs. Rayner, who was sitting on the front bench, then seemed to interrupt Mr. Clarkson, who asked, ‘Excuse me, did the honorable lady just call me scum?’
The exchange sparked an intervention from an irate Commons vice president, Dame Eleanor Laing, who said she would not accept such comments in the chamber “under any circumstances.”
Conservative MPs immediately demanded an apology and called on Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer to reprimand Ms Rayner for the comment.
Angela Rayner was accused today of calling a Conservative MP ‘scum’ during a House of Commons debate on the coronavirus
Conservative MP Chris Clarkson said he heard Ms Rayner make the comment after criticizing Labor’s response to the crisis.
The confrontation between Ms. Rayner and Mr. Clarkson occurred during an opposition day debate in the Commons this afternoon, as MPs debated funding for areas facing additional restrictions from coronavirus.
Labor is calling on the government to publish “clear and fair national criteria for financial support for jobs and businesses” in areas that moved to Level Three.
Clarkson, the Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton, told Labor to “put off opportunism” as he cited comments made by shadow education secretary Kate Green, who previously said Covid-19 was a “good crisis “for the party.
He said: ‘I know (Kate Green) thinks this is a good crisis that the Labor Party should exploit, and I know that he speaks on behalf of many of his front-row colleagues when he says that, you just need to see him in support, Change. of meaning, opposite approach that has characterized his heavy behavior in hindsight ‘.
After an interruption from Mrs. Rayner, Mr. Clarkson replied, “Excuse me, did the honorable lady just call me scum?”
Dame Eleanor immediately interrupted the procedure and launched a bang: ‘Order, order, order. From the front bench we have no comments like that.
“No, under no circumstances, no matter how sincere.” No way.’
In raising a point of order in response to the allegation, Ms. Rayner said: “ I think one of the things that I would ask your guidance on is that (Mr. Clarkson) says things about the front bench that are inaccurate his speech and me. ” I would ask them to remove it.
Dame Eleanor replied: ‘It is not for the president to decide what is accurate or inaccurate, I cannot make such a judgment.
But of course I will ask (Mr. Clarkson) to be reasonable in what he says and to be careful with his comments.
“And I’m sure that if (Mr. Clarkson) feels that he has said something that is offensive to (Mrs. Rayner), he will certainly back down and apologize immediately.”
Resuming his speech, Mr. Clarkson said: ‘Thank you, Madam Vice President, and thank you for your guidance.
“ To clarify, I asked (Ms Rayner) if she called me that (scum), that’s what I heard. ”
Mr. Clarkson continued his speech without withdrawing his earlier comments.
Amanda Milling, chair of the Conservative Party, called on Sir Keir to “take action” against Ms Rayner.
Tweeting a video of the exchange, he said: ‘This is totally unacceptable of Angela Rayner. At 29 seconds you can clearly hear him calling Chris Clarkson ‘scum’.
“As elected representatives, we have a duty to lead by example. Will he apologize and if not, will Keir Starmer act?
Conservative MP Dehenna Davison echoed a similar sentiment when she said: “Absolutely disgraceful behavior from the Labor front bench.
Rayner needs to apologize immediately. This is not what politics is about. “
Mrs Rayner was challenged in the Commons when Conservative MP Sara Britcliffe said: ‘The attitude that I just saw in this chamber is what turned many of my residents against the Labor Party. It is unacceptable ‘.
An irate vice president, Dame Eleanor Laing, chimed in, saying she would not allow such comments “under any circumstances.”
Opening the debate, Ms Rayner had previously described the Government’s financial support package for Greater Manchester as it progresses to Level Three as ‘an insult’ and also revealed that her aunt had died last week from Covid-19 at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.
The Labor motion calling for ‘fair national criteria’ to be established to support areas facing additional restrictions was ultimately defeated by 261 votes to 340, a majority of 79.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ms Rayner’s Westminster roommate from Labor, criticized the government’s strategy, telling MPs: ‘For most, this does not appear to be an infection control exercise.
“It appears to be an exercise to keep the North and other Level Three areas away from the rest of the country to participate in our own version of the Hunger Games, where only the fittest and wealthiest will survive.”
Labor MP Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) also said in the debate: “Since the Peterloo massacre of 1819, the state has shown no coercive power over the people of Greater Manchester.”
Tory William Wragg also urged MPs “not to underestimate the anger the public feels” over the stricter restrictions.
He said: ‘I do not support the Labor suggestion of a national shutdown which makes little sense at all.
However, what worries me most are the difficulties that lie ahead, the increase in unemployment and the despair of some people.
“In fact, I can’t help but think that the drug runs the risk of being worse than the disease.”
Ms. Rayner was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in April this year after rising to prominence at Westminster as shadow education secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP, first elected to Parliament in 2015, has previously relied heavily on her experience as a struggling teenage mother.
The mother of three was 16 when she had her first child, Ryan, and has recounted how getting pregnant so young “saved” her.
She proudly welcomed her own granddaughter at the age of 37 with a tweet that jokingly referred to herself as ‘Grangela’.
