Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Wouldn't have changed the result but the Tories broke pairing tonight: https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/stat...03110794186753
Jo Swinson was paired with Brandon Lewis but, after she was told that, he voted anyway.
Quite a low thing to do.
TBH Pairing helps out the Government a lot. Sometimes Government ministers cannot be in the chamber, especially the PM and Foreign Secretary, so no reason now Labour can't refuse to honour in those cases. So either the PM and others need to attend every vote or risk losing it. |
That was a disgrace / obviously nobody believes Lewis's nonsense of "forgetting" but one thing I thought of at the time is...okay they made a mistake so why not re-vote on that amendment with the government honoring the pairing?
At the time that happened I figured that you would be the only one who brought this up and I haven't read the rest of the replies but I commend you for bringing it up - the behavior was disgraceful.
If you don't agree with pairing (some don't) then fine...on the merits oppose it. If you agree with it, honor it. However this cockamamie garbage of "I forgot" is disgraceful from the Tories.
I suppose it is a little insensitive on my part in some ways ; May was baron so I suppose the maternity leave of other women is rather a sore point / the last thing she spends time focusing on but that is no excuse for the party chair / chief whip etc.